SR3: Sherman + Visscher 2002- honeybee colony fitness by dancing Flashcards
what is dance language hypothesised to increase?
colony food collection
how do colonies with disorientated dances compare to those with oriented dances?
disoriented have no direction so recruit less effectively to feeders
when is food location information particularly important?
when food source is hard to find or variable in richness
recruitment based on what is particularly effective, that we can see in honeybees, bumblebees and some stingless bees?
arousal of foragers and communication of floral odour
what do elements of the dance encode?
direction and distance to the food source
what does direction correspond to ?
the angle of heading to the food source relative to the sun and performed relative to the sensory reference
in A.mellifera where are dances usually?
on vertical combs in the dark nest with an upward reference
in A.florea where is the dance usually performed?
on horizontal surface with reference to the sun and usually in random directions
what do bees that follow dance also learn?
the odour of food
what do studies suggest the dance makes the nest?
information centre that directs the colony to the richest sources
what was the basic experimental set up?
diffused light treatment for disoriented dances and oriented treatments
how were dances from the oriented treatment similar to those on the vertical combs?
very directionally oriented
in 3 trials for which kind of dances did significantly more recruits arrive at the feeder?
colony with oriented dances
what did they count?
number of tagged bees dancing in each colony
what was the diffuse light treatment?
caused the disoriented dances
what decreased with distance and what did this show?
recruits arriving at feeders during diffuse light treatment - showed that the effect of the dance language is greater further from the colony
during periods when the bees had oriented dances what did the small colonies average greater and how did this vary?
greater food collection but varied across different seasons
what happened to the mass of colonies for the oriented and disoriented diffuse light treatments in
a) summer
b) autumn
c) winter
a) gained similar mass in both treatments
b) lost mass regardless of treatment
c) gained mass in oriented treatment but lost it under diffuse
in natural foraging conditions what can increase food collection of honeybees?
communication of distance and direction in dance language
what did the study help confirm?
that bees use directional information in locating food sources advertised in the dance
what may explain why some bees did not have directional information?
they may have been relying on the scent of the feeder
in winter what does communication of food source location increase?
a colony’s food intake
what is recruitment communication in insects steered by?
- what causes the pay off to vary?
whether a recruitment mechanism increases food collection more than it decreases it
- different habitats and seasons
in honeybees what can short periods where dancing increases fitness drive?
evolution of dance language recruitment
once a single bee has located the source often how long does it take for foragers to arrive?
matter of minutes
if honeybees have no alternative where will they dance?
on horizontal combs
if horizontal comb is enclosed and dark how do the worker bees treat a bright single light?
as if it were the sun and orientate their dances to it
what was compared in the study?
recruitment to feeders when colonies had disoriented and oriented dances
what can increase food collection?
communicating distance and direction
