Honeybees perform optimal scale-free searching flights when attempting to locate a food source

Abstract

. Consequently, Lévy-flights are said to be 'scale-free' because their statistical properties do not depend upon the observational scale. This absence of a characteristic scale makes Lévy-flights scaleThe foraging strategies used by animals are key to their success in spatially and temporally heterogeneous environments. We hypothesise that when a food source at a known location ceases to be available, flying insects will exhibit search patterns that optimise the rediscovery of such resources. In order to study these searching patterns, foraging honeybees were trained to an artificial feeder that was then removed, and the subsequent flight patterns of the bees were recorded using harmonic radar. We show that the flight patterns have a scale-free (Lévy-flight) characteristic that constitutes an optimal searching strategy for the location of the feeder. It is shown that this searching strategy would remain optimal even if the implementation of the Lévy-flights was imprecise due, for example, to errors in the bees' path integration system or difficulties in responding to variable wind conditions. The implications of these findings for animal foraging in general are discussed.

Hierarchical random walks in trace fossils and the origin of optimal search behavior

“…ubiquity of Lévy patterns among extant organisms, including humans (1)(2)(3)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18), suggests that searches that approximate them have evolved naturally (3). It has been hypothesized that behavioral adaptations to changes in environmental resources cue the switching between localized Brownian and Lévy random searching (2,3,13) or that sensory interactions with heterogeneous environments may give rise to Lévy movement patterns (an emergent phenomena) (19); however, the origins of such potential mechanisms remain elusive.…”

A Lévy-flight diffusion model to predict transgenic pollen dispersal

“…(Online version in colour.) 13 metres when looking for alternative food sources or attempting to locate a displaced hive [17,18,43]. These long displacements may result in long-distance pollination and hence increase the risk of adventitious mixing between GM and non-GM crops.…”

“…The searching patterns of foraging honeybees have been studied extensively by Reynolds et al [17,18,43]. They have conducted field experiments using harmonic radar to track the movements of displaced honeybees searching for their hive, or for alternative food resources after a known source of food has been removed.…”

“…They are, therefore, well suited to represent movement which includes a non-negligible probability for very large displacements. Lévy-type foraging patterns have been observed for a broad range of organisms, including honeybees [17,18], bumblebees [19], fruit flies [20], large marine predators [21,22], human T cells [23], jellyfishes [24], albatrosses [25] and even human hunter-gatherers [26]. All of these Lévy patterns have been identified through sound statistical techniques, but there is still some debate on the underlying driving mechanism: natural selection to optimize search efficiency [27] or spontaneous emergence from innate behaviours [28].…”

Technology and human purpose: the problem of solids transport on the Earth's surface

“…Basic scaling arguments, like those used in physics to distinguish between advective and diffusive phenomena in fluid transport (i.e., like the Reynolds number), are employed to compare different dynamical regimes of technological mass transport. Future investigations might consider hybrid, i.e., mixed-regime transport, such as that exemplified by Levy flights (Reynolds et al, 2007). Methods such as those that use cellular automata to mimic combined diffusive and advective motions of transported mass (Haff, 2001) also offer natural ways to extend the present scaling arguments.…”