Social Waves in Giant Honeybees Repel Hornets

Kastberger, Gerald; Schmelzer, Evelyn; Kranner, Ilse

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0003141

Cited by 108 publications

(199 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…Signals observable at a distance allowed information to travel much faster than the ships could move themselves. Since these studies, similar behavioral cascades have been found in many other organisms (2,(6)(7)(8).…”

supporting

confidence: 72%

Revealing the hidden networks of interaction in mobile animal groups allows prediction of complex behavioral contagion

Rosenthal¹,

Twomey

Hartnett³

et al. 2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

400

453

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Coordination among social animals requires rapid and efficient transfer of information among individuals, which may depend crucially on the underlying structure of the communication network. Establishing the decision-making circuits and networks that give rise to individual behavior has been a central goal of neuroscience. However, the analogous problem of determining the structure of the communication network among organisms that gives rise to coordinated collective behavior, such as is exhibited by schooling fish and flocking birds, has remained almost entirely neglected. Here, we study collective evasion maneuvers, manifested through rapid waves, or cascades, of behavioral change (a ubiquitous behavior among taxa) in schooling fish (Notemigonus crysoleucas). We automatically track the positions and body postures, calculate visual fields of all individuals in schools of ∼150 fish, and determine the functional mapping between socially generated sensory input and motor response during collective evasion. We find that individuals use simple, robust measures to assess behavioral changes in neighbors, and that the resulting networks by which behavior propagates throughout groups are complex, being weighted, directed, and heterogeneous. By studying these interaction networks, we reveal the (complex, fractional) nature of social contagion and establish that individuals with relatively few, but strongly connected, neighbors are both most socially influential and most susceptible to social influence. Furthermore, we demonstrate that we can predict complex cascades of behavioral change at their moment of initiation, before they actually occur. Consequently, despite the intrinsic stochasticity of individual behavior, establishing the hidden communication networks in large self-organized groups facilitates a quantitative understanding of behavioral contagion.T he social transmission of behavioral change is central to collective animal behavior. For many mobile groups, such as schooling fish and flocking birds, social contagion can be fast, resulting in dramatic waves of response (1-6). Such waves are evident in particular when individuals are under threat of attack from predators (1). Despite the ubiquity and importance of behavioral contagion, and the fact that survival depends on how individual interactions scale to collective properties (2), we still know very little about the sensory basis and mechanism of such coordinated collective response.In the early 20th century, Edmund Selous proposed that rapid waves of turning in large flocks of birds resulted from a direct transference of thoughts among animals: "They must think collectively, all at the same time. . . a flash out of so many brains" (3). By the mid-1950s, however, attention had turned from telepathy to synchrony arising from the rapid transmission of local behavioral response to neighbors, with some of the first experimental studies of cascading behavioral change undertaken by Dimitrii Radakov (4). Radakov (4) hand-traced the paths of each fish, frame-by-fram...

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supporting

confidence: 72%

Revealing the hidden networks of interaction in mobile animal groups allows prediction of complex behavioral contagion

Rosenthal¹,

Twomey

Hartnett³

et al. 2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

400

453

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“…This decrease in brood area could be associated with the release of alarm pheromones that may change honeybee behavior, mainly by interfering with the flux of information transmitted by other pheromones in the colonies (Kastberger et al, 2008). Thus, the collecting of apitoxin could interfere with brood care, the queen's oviposition of worker eggs, and with resources collection by worker bees in some periods.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Apitoxin harvest affects population development but not the hygienic behavior of African-derived honey bees

Onari¹,

Zaluski²,

Bovi³

et al. 2016

Sociobiology

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Apitoxin harvest affects population development but not the hygienic behavior of African-derived honey bees IntroductionApitoxin is a product that bees can offer to humans, the word originating from the Latin apis (bee) and toxikon (venom.) This substance is produced by the acid glands of worker bees, and characterized as being clear, colorless, and highly soluble in water (Cruz-Landim & Abdalla, 2002).Apitoxin toxicity is attributed to three proteic components: enzymes (phospholipase A2 and hyaluronidase), large peptides (melittin, apamin, and mast cell degranulating [MCD] peptide) and small molecules (peptides and biogenic amines), all substances that show pharmacological and allergenic activities. The allergenic factors are antigenic proteins such as phospholipases, hyaluronidases, lipases, and phosphatases, that are injected during the sting, and which initiate immune responses in hypersensitive individuals (Cardoso et al., 2009).While the apitoxin can cause allergic and hypersensitivity reactions, small doses and fractions of its purified AbstractThe biological properties of apitoxin have prompted its production for use in human and animal health applications. However, the apitoxin harvest triggers a defense reaction in honeybee colonies, which includes the release of alarm pheromones (isopentyl acetate and 2-heptanone), which cause stress and could cause behavioral changes that influence the routine activities of the colony. Considering the lack of data in the literature describing the effects of the prolonged harvesting of apitoxin, the present study conducted over a period of one year, aimed to investigate whether the apitoxin harvest influences population development and hygienic behavior of African-derived Apis mellifera (L.). We observed that apitoxin harvest affected the uncapped brood area of the colonies during the months of April, May, and June, and affected the capped brood area in July. The hygienic behavior of the colonies was not affected. Furthermore, we observed that during the study year, there was loss by abandonment of nine of the colonies subjected to apitoxin harvesting. We conclude that under the conditions of this study, the apitoxin harvest can negatively influence the development of the colony population during certain times of the year, without affecting the hygienic behavior of the colonies.

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“…Giant honeybees (Apis dorsata) warn potential predators by producing shimmering movements. The signalling behaviour spreads from individual to individual, resulting in waves of movement across the entire (up to 1m-wide) comb (Kastberger et al, 2008). It has been suggested that termite drumming is more a warning signal aimed at vertebrate predators than an alarm signal (Howse, 1984).…”

Section: Recognition Of Pulse Structurementioning

confidence: 99%

Vibrational long-distance communication in the termitesMacrotermes natalensisandOdontotermessp.

Hager

Kirchner

2013

Journal of Experimental Biology

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Social Waves in Giant Honeybees Repel Hornets

Cited by 108 publications

References 22 publications

Revealing the hidden networks of interaction in mobile animal groups allows prediction of complex behavioral contagion

Revealing the hidden networks of interaction in mobile animal groups allows prediction of complex behavioral contagion

Apitoxin harvest affects population development but not the hygienic behavior of African-derived honey bees

Vibrational long-distance communication in the termitesMacrotermes natalensisandOdontotermessp.

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