Why do honey bees dance?

Dornhaus, Anna; Chittka, Lars

doi:10.1007/s00265-003-0726-9

Cited by 172 publications

(195 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…The recruitment mechanism provides a direct control to reduce the number of foragers (experiencing high mortality) when resources are rare. This control of colony foraging effort (resource allocation of the "super-organism") thus may be a main benefit of the honey bee dance (Dornhaus and Chittka, 2004). On the other hand, genetic differences in AFF between the high and low pollen-hoarding strains (Pankiw and Page, 2001;Rueppell et al, 2004b), demonstrate the evolutionary flexibility of the AFF and thus life expectancy.…”

Section: The Age Of First Foragingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Regulation of life history determines lifespan of worker honey bees (Apis mellifera L.)

Rueppell¹,

Bachelier²,

Fondrk³

et al. 2007

Experimental Gerontology

168

167

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Life expectancy of honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) is of general interest to gerontological research because its variability among different groups of bees is one of the most striking cases of natural plasticity of aging. Worker honey bees spend their first days of adult life working in the nest, then transition to foraging and die between 4 and 8 weeks of age. Foraging is believed to be primarily responsible for the early death of workers. Three large-scale experiments were performed to quantitatively assess the importance of flight activity, chronological age, extrinsic mortality factors and foraging specialization. Forager mortality was higher than in-hive bee mortality. Most importantly however, reducing the external mortality hazards and foraging activity did not lead to the expected strong extension of life. Most of the experimental effects were attributable to an earlier transition from hive tasks to foraging. This transition is accompanied by a significant mortality peak. The age at the onset of foraging is the central variable in worker life-history and behavioral state was found more important than chronological age for honey bee aging. However, mortality risk increased with age and the negative relation between preforaging and foraging lifespan indicate some senescence irrespective of behavioral state. Overall, honey bee workers exhibit a logistic mortality dynamic which is mainly caused by the age-dependent transition from a low mortality pre-foraging state to a higher mortality foraging state.

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Section: The Age Of First Foragingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Regulation of life history determines lifespan of worker honey bees (Apis mellifera L.)

Rueppell¹,

Bachelier²,

Fondrk³

et al. 2007

Experimental Gerontology

168

167

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…However, there are no published studies investigating the influence of colony size on the benefits of food recruitment. Another factor may be more crucial for the evolution of location communication: spatial resource distribution (Visscher and Seeley, 1982;Hölldobler and Wilson, 1990;Sherman and Visscher, 2002;Dornhaus and Chittka, 2004). If resources were densely and evenly spread throughout the foraging range and of equal quality, recruitment to a specific location would not improve foraging success or reduce search time.…”

Section: Why Not Location?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is likely that a number of other factors contribute to the benefit of recruitment to specific locations, for example intra-and interspecific competition (Johnson and Hubbell, 1975). Once more information is available on the phylogeny of the stingless bees and bumble bees (Lockhart (Dornhaus, 2002;Dornhaus and Chittka, 2004). Figure 5.…”

Section: Why Not Location?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We have quantified the improvement in foraging success through recruitment to locations in manipulated honey bee hives in three locations (Dornhaus, 2002;Dornhaus and Chittka, 2004). Hives were brought into a horizontal position, in which the waggle dance, the communication system of honey bees, loses its location information unless bees are allowed to orient using the sun's location.…”

Section: Why Not Location?mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Information flow and regulation of foraging activity in bumble bees (Bombus spp.)

Dornhaus

Chittka

2004

Apidologie

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-Communication in the context of foraging in bumble bees has received less attention than in other social bees. Yet, recent studies have revealed that information flow mediates colony foraging activity. The species studied do not recruit to specific locations, but bees can learn the scent of food sources at the nest, which may reduce their search time. Location communication may not confer high benefits to bumble bees. But bees react to nectar influx with increased foraging activity, with high quality food eliciting more activity. This shows that bees recognize and sample freshly collected nectar. If the colony has no demand for food, foraging activity does not increase. Successful foragers distribute a tergal gland pheromone in the nest that also elicits higher foraging activity. Information exchange in the nest thus enables bumble bees to base their decision to forage on demand and the presence and profitability of food.Bombus terrestris / recruitment / social insect / collective foraging / communication

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“…A key mechanism facilitating efficient coordinated foraging in honey bees (Apis mellifera) is their symbolic dance language (1)(2)(3)(4). When they return to the hive, successful foragers may perform dances to advertise the location and relative profitability of a resource to nestmates (1,5).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Octopamine modulates honey bee dance behavior

Barron

Maleszka

Meer³

et al. 2007

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

140

115

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Honey bees communicate the location and desirability of valuable forage sites to their nestmates through an elaborate, symbolic ''dance language.'' The dance language is a uniquely complex communication system in invertebrates, and the neural mechanisms that generate dances are largely unknown. Here we show that treatments with controlled doses of the biogenic amine neuromodulator octopamine selectively increased the reporting of resource value in dances by forager bees. Oral and topical octopamine treatments modulated aspects of dances related to resource profitability in a dose-dependent manner. Dances for pollen and sucrose responded similarly to octopamine treatment, and these effects were eliminated by treatment with the octopamine antagonist mianserin. We propose that octopamine modulates the representation of floral rewards in dances by changing the processing of reward in the honey bee brain. Octopamine is known to modulate appetitive behavior in a range of solitary insects; the role of octopamine in dance provides an example of how neural substrates can be adapted for new behavioral innovations in the process of social evolution.Apis mellifera ͉ biogenic amine ͉ foraging ͉ reward ͉ social behavior

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Why do honey bees dance?

Cited by 172 publications

References 29 publications

Regulation of life history determines lifespan of worker honey bees (Apis mellifera L.)

Regulation of life history determines lifespan of worker honey bees (Apis mellifera L.)

Information flow and regulation of foraging activity in bumble bees (Bombus spp.)

Octopamine modulates honey bee dance behavior

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