Abstract
The ability of a successful forager to activate colony foraging allows colonies to rapidly exploit ephemeral resources and is an important innovation in the evolution of sociality. We tested the ability of the species, Bombus occidentalis, to stimulate colony foraging for food varying in quality. We then analyzed the behavior of successful foragers inside the nest to learn more about potential foraging activation movements. The number of bees entering a foraging arena was positively correlated with food sucrose concentration (0.5, 1.0, and 2.5 M sucrose, equal to 16–65% w/w). Foragers spent significantly more time imbibing higher concentration solutions. Foragers then returned to the nest where they moved in elaborate paths at variable speeds. There was no significant effect of sucrose concentration on average forager velocity or time spent inside the nest. However, the length of a forager’s path inside the nest (total of all distances moved each 0.1 s) significantly increased with sucrose concentration. On average, individuals foraging on 2.5 M and 1.0 M solution walked paths respectively 1.6 fold and 1.4 longer than the paths of individuals foraging on 0.5 M solution. These longer paths could result in a greater number of nestmate contacts, a factor shown to be important in the activation of B. impatiens foragers and also reported in B. terrestris foragers.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the reviewers who provided valuable comments on this manuscript and the many individuals who helped in the experiments and analysis: Laura Stamm, Katherine Nguyen, Jeremy Song, Amy Lin, Megan Eckles, Peter Tang, Erin Loomis, and Erin Wilson. The Opportunities for Research in the Behavioral Sciences (ORBS) Program at UCSD, the UCSD Heiligenberg Endowment, and NSF Grant 0316697 supported this research.
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Nguyen, H., Nieh, J.C. Colony and Individual Forager Responses to Food Quality in the New World Bumble Bee, Bombus occidentalis . J Insect Behav 25, 60–69 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10905-011-9277-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10905-011-9277-5