Gérard Maxence, Marchand Justine, Zanutto Jade, Baird Emily
INSECT Lab, Division of Functional Morphology, Department of Zoology, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden.
Sorbonne Université, Faculté des Sciences et Ingénierie, Paris, France.
Front Insect Sci. 2023 Jan 4;2:1073380. doi: 10.3389/finsc.2022.1073380. eCollection 2022.
Foraging behavior is driven by diverse factors, notably life history traits. Foraging strategies are particularly complex among eusocial species such as bumblebees, because they depend primarily on the needs of the colony, rather than on individual's needs. Colony size, i.e. the number of workers in a colony vary a lot among eusocial insects. While a large colony can be adaptive, several drivers can strongly decrease colony size, like pesticides or high temperatures. In this study, we used the bumblebee to assess if workers adapted their foraging behavior to such rapid decreases in colony size. We conducted the foraging experiments with two plant species commonly used by bumblebees: and . Several foraging parameters were measured: foraging time, number of foraging trips, number of workers foraging, handling time and visiting rate. Despite a drastic reduction in colony size, nearly all the foraging behavior parameters were unaffected by the colony size reduction. Colonies that were subject to a large decrease in workers instead displayed high resilience and behavioral plasticity by quickly increasing the proportion of foragers. Ultimately, further research should assess if this consistency in foraging behavior also allows bumblebee colonies to maintain both the efficiency of the resources collection and pollination.
觅食行为受多种因素驱动，尤其是生活史特征。在诸如大黄蜂等群居性物种中，觅食策略尤为复杂，因为它们主要取决于蜂群的需求，而非个体需求。蜂群规模，即一个蜂群中工蜂的数量，在群居性昆虫中差异很大。虽然大蜂群可能具有适应性，但一些因素，如杀虫剂或高温，会强烈降低蜂群规模。在本研究中，我们利用大黄蜂来评估工蜂是否会使其觅食行为适应蜂群规模的这种快速下降。我们用大黄蜂常用的两种植物物种进行了觅食实验： 和 。测量了几个觅食参数：觅食时间、觅食行程数、觅食工蜂数量、处理时间和访花率。尽管蜂群规模急剧减小，但几乎所有觅食行为参数均未受蜂群规模减小的影响。相反，工蜂数量大幅减少的蜂群通过迅速增加觅食者比例，表现出了很高的恢复力和行为可塑性。最终，进一步的研究应评估这种觅食行为的一致性是否也能使大黄蜂蜂群维持资源采集和授粉的效率。
