Makinson James C, Beekman Madeleine
Behaviour and Genetics of Social Insects Lab, School of Biological Sciences, University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia Centre for Mathematical Biology, University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
Behaviour and Genetics of Social Insects Lab, School of Biological Sciences, University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia Centre for Mathematical Biology, University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia.
J Exp Biol. 2014 Jun 1;217(Pt 11):2020-7. doi: 10.1242/jeb.103283. Epub 2014 Mar 27.
During reproductive swarming, honey bee scouts perform two very important functions. Firstly, they find new nesting locations and return to the swarm cluster to communicate their discoveries. Secondly, once the swarm is ready to depart, informed scout bees act as guides, leading the swarm to its final destination. We have previously hypothesised that the two processes, selecting a new nest site and swarm guidance, are tightly linked in honey bees. When swarms can be laissez faire about where they nest, reaching directional consensus prior to lift off seems unnecessary. If, in contrast, it is essential that the swarm reaches a precise location, either directional consensus must be near unanimous prior to swarm departure or only a select subgroup of the scouts guide the swarm. Here, we tested experimentally whether directional consensus is necessary for the successful guidance of swarms of the Western honey bee Apis mellifera by forcing swarms into the air prior to the completion of the decision-making process. Our results show that swarms were unable to guide themselves prior to the swarm reaching the pre-flight buzzing phase of the decision-making process, even when directional consensus was high. We therefore suggest that not all scouts involved in the decision-making process attempt to guide the swarm.
在繁殖分蜂期间，蜜蜂侦察蜂执行两项非常重要的功能。首先，它们寻找新的筑巢地点，然后返回蜂群聚集处传达它们的发现。其次，一旦蜂群准备离开，知晓情况的侦察蜂就会充当向导，带领蜂群前往最终目的地。我们之前曾假设，在蜜蜂中，选择新巢址和蜂群引导这两个过程紧密相连。当蜂群可以随意选择筑巢地点时，在起飞前达成方向共识似乎就没有必要了。相反，如果蜂群必须到达一个精确的地点，那么要么在蜂群离开前方向共识必须几乎一致，要么只有一小部分特定的侦察蜂引导蜂群。在此，我们通过在决策过程完成之前迫使蜂群起飞，对西方蜜蜂意大利蜜蜂蜂群的成功引导是否需要方向共识进行了实验测试。我们的结果表明，在蜂群达到决策过程的飞行前嗡嗡声阶段之前，蜂群无法自行引导，即使方向共识很高。因此，我们认为并非所有参与决策过程的侦察蜂都试图引导蜂群。
