TITLE:
Sugar concentration influences decision making in Apis mellifera L. workers during early-stage honey storage behaviour
AUTHORS:
Mark K. Greco, Johann Lang, Peter Gallmann, Nicholas Priest, Edward Feil, Karl Crailsheim
KEYWORDS:
Honey; Floral Constancy; Nectar; Foraging Behaviour; Decision Making
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Animal Sciences,
Vol.3 No.3,
July
11,
2013
ABSTRACT: Decision
making in honeybees is based on information which is acquired and processed in
order to make choices between two or more alternatives. These choices lead to
the expression of optimal behaviour strategies such as floral constancy. Optimal
foraging strategies such as floral constancy improve a colony’s chances of survival,
however to our knowledge, there has been no research on decision making based on
optimal storage strategies. Here we show, using diagnostic radioentomology, that
decision making in storer bees is influenced by nectar sugar concentrations and
that, within 48 hours of collection, honeybees workers store carbohydrates in
groups of cells with similar sugar concentrations in a nonrandom way. This behaviour,
as evidenced by patchy spatial cell distributions, would help to hasten the ripening
process by reducing the distance between cells of similar sugar concentrations.
Thus, colonies which exhibit optimal storage strategies such as these would have
an evolutionary advantage and im- prove colony survival expectations over less efficient
colonies and it should be plausible to select colonies that exhibit these preferred
traits.