2001
DOI: 10.1007/s002650000289
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Exploration and exploitation of food sources by social insect colonies: a revision of the scout-recruit concept

Abstract: Social insect colonies need to explore and exploit multiple food sources simultaneously and efficiently. At the individual level, this colony-level behaviour has been thought to be taken care of by two types of individual: scouts that independently search for food, and recruits that are directed by nest mates to a food source. However, recent analyses show that this strict division of labour between scouts and recruits is untenable. Therefore, a modified concept is presented here that comprises the possible be… Show more

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Cited by 137 publications
(105 citation statements)
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“…We again found inspiration in nature (Biesmeijer, 2001) and in the failed follower hypothesis (Beekman, 2007). The foraging bees fall within one of two categories -scouts or recruits.…”
Section: Bees Scouts or Recruitssupporting
confidence: 52%
“…We again found inspiration in nature (Biesmeijer, 2001) and in the failed follower hypothesis (Beekman, 2007). The foraging bees fall within one of two categories -scouts or recruits.…”
Section: Bees Scouts or Recruitssupporting
confidence: 52%
“…It might be then that the bees in our experimental setup needed more time to switch to the control patch or a decrease of the food profitability happen as it is proposed by Schmidt et al (2006). Switching to a new food source requires that foragers turn idle, receptive to be reactivated by successful foragers (Biesmeijer & de Vries 2001) in our case, the foragers in the control patch. For pollination purposes this might mean a delay in pollen transfer between trees; but as long as foragers are spread over several food sources, there is the chance of switching and of pollen transfer between individual plants.…”
mentioning
confidence: 92%
“…Because of the big differences in ecological and behavioural contexts between the two types of scouts, we compared each type of scout to the relevant group of 'recruits', those bees who followed the information provided by the scouts in each context [21]. Recruits are similar to scouts in age, experience, search image and activity level during foraging and nest hunting, but differ significantly in their novelty-seeking tendency.…”
Section: Introductionmentioning
confidence: 99%