SR3: Sherman + Visscher 2002- honeybee colony fitness by dancing

Question 1

what is dance language hypothesised to increase?

Answer 1

colony food collection

Question 2

how do colonies with disorientated dances compare to those with oriented dances?

Answer 2

disoriented have no direction so recruit less effectively to feeders

Question 3

when is food location information particularly important?

Answer 3

when food source is hard to find or variable in richness

Question 4

recruitment based on what is particularly effective, that we can see in honeybees, bumblebees and some stingless bees?

Answer 4

arousal of foragers and communication of floral odour

Question 5

what do elements of the dance encode?

Answer 5

direction and distance to the food source

Question 6

what does direction correspond to ?

Answer 6

the angle of heading to the food source relative to the sun and performed relative to the sensory reference

Question 7

in A.mellifera where are dances usually?

Answer 7

on vertical combs in the dark nest with an upward reference

Question 8

in A.florea where is the dance usually performed?

Answer 8

on horizontal surface with reference to the sun and usually in random directions

Question 9

what do bees that follow dance also learn?

Answer 9

the odour of food

Question 10

what do studies suggest the dance makes the nest?

Answer 10

information centre that directs the colony to the richest sources

Question 11

what was the basic experimental set up?

Answer 11

diffused light treatment for disoriented dances and oriented treatments

Question 12

how were dances from the oriented treatment similar to those on the vertical combs?

Answer 12

very directionally oriented

Question 13

in 3 trials for which kind of dances did significantly more recruits arrive at the feeder?

Answer 13

colony with oriented dances

Question 14

what did they count?

Answer 14

number of tagged bees dancing in each colony

Question 15

what was the diffuse light treatment?

Answer 15

caused the disoriented dances

Question 16

what decreased with distance and what did this show?

Answer 16

recruits arriving at feeders during diffuse light treatment - showed that the effect of the dance language is greater further from the colony

Question 17

during periods when the bees had oriented dances what did the small colonies average greater and how did this vary?

Answer 17

greater food collection but varied across different seasons

Question 18

what happened to the mass of colonies for the oriented and disoriented diffuse light treatments in

a) summer
b) autumn
c) winter

Answer 18

a) gained similar mass in both treatments
b) lost mass regardless of treatment
c) gained mass in oriented treatment but lost it under diffuse

Question 19

in natural foraging conditions what can increase food collection of honeybees?

Answer 19

communication of distance and direction in dance language

Question 20

what did the study help confirm?

Answer 20

that bees use directional information in locating food sources advertised in the dance

Question 21

what may explain why some bees did not have directional information?

Answer 21

they may have been relying on the scent of the feeder

Question 22

in winter what does communication of food source location increase?

Answer 22

a colony’s food intake

Question 23

what is recruitment communication in insects steered by?

- what causes the pay off to vary?

Answer 23

whether a recruitment mechanism increases food collection more than it decreases it
- different habitats and seasons

Question 24

in honeybees what can short periods where dancing increases fitness drive?

Answer 24

evolution of dance language recruitment

Question 25

once a single bee has located the source often how long does it take for foragers to arrive?

Answer 25

matter of minutes

Question 26

if honeybees have no alternative where will they dance?

Answer 26

on horizontal combs

Question 27

if horizontal comb is enclosed and dark how do the worker bees treat a bright single light?

Answer 27

as if it were the sun and orientate their dances to it

Question 28

what was compared in the study?

Answer 28

recruitment to feeders when colonies had disoriented and oriented dances

Question 29

what can increase food collection?

Answer 29

communicating distance and direction