Department of Entomology, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA, USA.
Biol Lett. 2022 Aug;18(8):20220155. doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2022.0155. Epub 2022 Aug 31.
Much like human consumers, honeybees adjust their behaviours based on resources' supply and demand. For both, interactions occur in fluctuating conditions. Honeybees weigh the cost of flight against the benefit of nectar and pollen, which are nutritionally distinct resources that serve different purposes: bees collect nectar continuously to build large honey stores for overwintering, but they collect pollen intermittently to build modest stores for brood production periods. Therefore, nectar foraging can be considered a supply-driven process, whereas pollen foraging is demand-driven. Here we compared the foraging distances, communicated by waggle dances and serving as a proxy for cost, for nectar and pollen in three ecologically distinct landscapes in Virginia. We found that honeybees foraged for nectar at distances 14% further than for pollen across all three sites ( = 6224 dances, < 0.001). Specific temporal dynamics reveal that monthly nectar foraging occurs at greater distances compared with pollen foraging 85% of the time. Our results strongly suggest that honeybee foraging cost dynamics are consistent with nectar supply-driven and pollen demand-driven processes.
就像人类消费者一样，蜜蜂会根据资源的供求情况调整自己的行为。对于两者来说，互动都是在波动的条件下发生的。蜜蜂会权衡飞行的成本与花蜜和花粉的收益，花蜜和花粉是两种营养不同的资源，它们有不同的用途：蜜蜂不断地采集花蜜来为越冬储存大量的蜂蜜，而它们间歇性地采集花粉来为繁殖期的幼虫储存适量的花粉。因此，花蜜觅食可以被认为是一种供应驱动的过程，而花粉觅食则是需求驱动的。在这里，我们比较了在弗吉尼亚州三个具有不同生态特征的地区，通过摇摆舞传递的、作为成本代理的觅食距离，用于花蜜和花粉。我们发现，在所有三个地点，蜜蜂采集花蜜的距离比采集花粉的距离远 14%（= 6224 次舞蹈，< 0.001）。特定的时间动态表明，每月的花蜜觅食距离比花粉觅食距离远，这种情况出现的时间占 85%。我们的研究结果强烈表明，蜜蜂觅食成本的动态与花蜜供应驱动和花粉需求驱动的过程是一致的。
