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Foraging strategies are maintained despite workforce reduction: A multidisciplinary survey on the pollen collected by a social pollinator. PLoS One 2019; 14:e0224037. [PMID: 31693676 PMCID: PMC6834249 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0224037] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/09/2019] [Accepted: 10/03/2019] [Indexed: 01/13/2023] Open
Abstract
The way pollinators gather resources may play a key role for buffering their population declines. Social pollinators like bumblebees could adjust their foraging after significant workforce reductions to keep provisions to the colony optimal, especially in terms of pollen diversity and quantity. To test what effects a workforce reduction causes on the foraging for pollen, commercially-acquired colonies of the bumblebee Bombus terrestris were allowed to forage in the field and they were experimentally manipulated by removing half the number of workers. For each bumblebee, the pollen pellets were taxonomically identified with DNA metabarcoding of the ITS2 region followed by a statistical filtering based on ROC curves to filter out underrepresented OTUs. Video cameras and network analyses were employed to investigate changes in foraging strategies and behaviour. After filtering out the false-positives, HTS metabarcoding yielded a high plant diversity in the pollen pellets; for plant identity and pollen quantity traits no differences emerged between samples from treated and from control colonies, suggesting that plant choice was influenced mainly by external factors such as the plant phenology. The colonies responded to the removal of 50% of their workers by increasing the foraging activity of the remaining workers, while only negligible changes were found in diet breadth and indices describing the structure of the pollen transport network. Therefore, a consistency in the bumblebees’ feeding strategies emerges in the short term despite the lowered workforce.
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Russell AL, Rebolleda‐Gómez M, Shaible TM, Ashman T. Movers and shakers: Bumble bee foraging behavior shapes the dispersal of microbes among and within flowers. Ecosphere 2019. [DOI: 10.1002/ecs2.2714] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/17/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Avery L. Russell
- Department of Biological Sciences University of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh Pennsylvania 15260 USA
| | - María Rebolleda‐Gómez
- Department of Biological Sciences University of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh Pennsylvania 15260 USA
| | - Tierney Marie Shaible
- Department of Biological Sciences University of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh Pennsylvania 15260 USA
- Entomology and Insect Science Graduate Interdisciplinary Program University of Arizona Tucson Arizona 85721 USA
| | - Tia‐Lynn Ashman
- Department of Biological Sciences University of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh Pennsylvania 15260 USA
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TELLO‐RAMOS MC, HURLY AT, HEALY SD. From a sequential pattern, temporal adjustments emerge in hummingbird traplining. Integr Zool 2019; 14:182-192. [DOI: 10.1111/1749-4877.12370] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Affiliation(s)
| | - Andrew T. HURLY
- Department of Biological SciencesUniversity of Lethbridge Alberta Canada
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Minahan DF, Brunet J. Strong Interspecific Differences in Foraging Activity Observed Between Honey Bees and Bumble Bees Using Miniaturized Radio Frequency Identification (RFID). Front Ecol Evol 2018. [DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2018.00156] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
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Woodgate JL, Makinson JC, Lim KS, Reynolds AM, Chittka L. Continuous Radar Tracking Illustrates the Development of Multi-destination Routes of Bumblebees. Sci Rep 2017; 7:17323. [PMID: 29230062 PMCID: PMC5725577 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-17553-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/03/2017] [Accepted: 11/28/2017] [Indexed: 12/27/2022] Open
Abstract
Animals that visit multiple foraging sites face a problem, analogous to the Travelling Salesman Problem, of finding an efficient route. We explored bumblebees' route development on an array of five artificial flowers in which minimising travel distances between individual feeders conflicted with minimising overall distance. No previous study of bee spatial navigation has been able to follow animals' movement during learning; we tracked bumblebee foragers continuously, using harmonic radar, and examined the process of route formation in detail for a small number of selected individuals. On our array, bees did not settle on visit sequences that gave the shortest overall path, but prioritised movements to nearby feeders. Nonetheless, flight distance and duration reduced with experience. This increased efficiency was attributable mainly to experienced bees reducing exploration beyond the feeder array and flights becoming straighter with experience, rather than improvements in the sequence of feeder visits. Flight paths of all legs of a flight stabilised at similar rates, whereas the first few feeder visits became fixed early while bees continued to experiment with the order of later visits. Stabilising early sections of a route and prioritising travel between nearby destinations may reduce the search space, allowing rapid adoption of efficient routes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joseph L Woodgate
- Department of Biological and Experimental Psychology, School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Road, London, E1 4NS, UK.
- Rothamsted Research, West Common, Harpenden, Hertfordshire, AL5 2JQ, UK.
| | - James C Makinson
- Department of Biological and Experimental Psychology, School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Road, London, E1 4NS, UK
- Rothamsted Research, West Common, Harpenden, Hertfordshire, AL5 2JQ, UK
| | - Ka S Lim
- Rothamsted Research, West Common, Harpenden, Hertfordshire, AL5 2JQ, UK
| | - Andrew M Reynolds
- Rothamsted Research, West Common, Harpenden, Hertfordshire, AL5 2JQ, UK
| | - Lars Chittka
- Department of Biological and Experimental Psychology, School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Road, London, E1 4NS, UK
- Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin Institute for Advanced Study, Wallotstrasse 19, Berlin, D-14193, Germany
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Salas-Arcos L, Lara C, Ornelas JF. Reproductive biology and nectar secretion dynamics of Penstemon gentianoides (Plantaginaceae): a perennial herb with a mixed pollination system? PeerJ 2017; 5:e3636. [PMID: 28828248 PMCID: PMC5554440 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.3636] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/01/2017] [Accepted: 07/12/2017] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND In many plant species, pollination syndromes predict the most effective pollinator. However, other floral visitors may also offer effective pollination services and promote mixed pollination systems. Several species of the species-rich Penstemon (Plantaginaceae) exhibit a suite of floral traits that suggest adaptation for pollination by both hymenopterans and hummingbirds. Transitions from the ancestral hymenopteran pollination syndrome to more derived hummingbird pollination syndrome may be promoted if the quantity or quality of visits by hummingbirds is increased and if the ancestral pollinator group performs less efficiently. The quantification of such shifts in pollination systems in the group is still limited. We aimed to investigate floral traits linked to this pollination syndrome in Penstemon gentianoides with flowers visited by bumblebees and hummingbirds. METHODS We investigated the floral biology, pollinator assemblages, breeding system and nectar production patterns of P. gentianoides inhabiting a temperate montane forest in central Mexico. Pollination experiments were also conducted to assess the pollinator effectiveness of bumblebees and hummingbirds. RESULTS P. gentianoides flowers are protandrous, with 8-d male phase (staminate) flowers, followed by the ∼1-7 d female phase (pistillate phase). Flowers display traits associated with hymenopteran pollination, including purple flowers abruptly ampliate-ventricose to a broad throat with anthers and stigmas included, and long lifespans. However, the nectar available in the morning hours was abundant and dilute, traits linked to flowers with a hummingbird pollination syndrome. Two hummingbird species made most of the visits to flowers, Selasphorus platycercus (30.3% of all visits), followed by Archilochus colubris (11.3%). Bumblebees (Bombus ephippiatus, B. huntii and B. weisi) accounted for 51.8% of all recorded visits, but their foraging activity was restricted to the warmer hours. Hummingbirds made more foraging bouts and visited more flowers than hymenopteran species. Flowers experimentally pollinated by B. ephippiatus produced significantly more fruits than those pollinated by S. platycercus. However, there was no statistical difference in the number of seeds produced per fruit when a bumblebee or a hummingbird was the pollinator. CONCLUSIONS We have shown that bumblebees and hummingbirds visit and pollinate P. gentianoides flowers. Despite floral traits resembling the hymenoptera pollination syndrome, flowers of P. gentianoides offer characteristic nectar rewards to flowers with a hummingbird pollination syndrome. Although pollination efficiency is higher among flowers visited by hymenoptera, the noteworthy percentage of fruit production and number of seeds per fruit derived from hummingbird pollination highlights the importance of hummingbirds as a functional group of pollinators that might have potential evolutionary consequences to the plants.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lucía Salas-Arcos
- Doctorado en Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad Autónoma de Tlaxcala, Tlaxala, Mexico
| | - Carlos Lara
- Centro de Investigaciones en Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad Autónoma de Tlaxcala, Tlaxcala, Mexico
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Tsujimoto SG, Ishii HS. Effect of flower perceptibility on spatial-reward associative learning by bumble bees. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 2017. [DOI: 10.1007/s00265-017-2328-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
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9
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Berger-Tal O, Bar-David S. Recursive movement patterns: review and synthesis across species. Ecosphere 2015. [DOI: 10.1890/es15-00106.1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 51] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
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English M, Gillespie G, Goossens B, Ismail S, Ancrenaz M, Linklater W. Recursion to food plants by free-ranging Bornean elephant. PeerJ 2015; 3:e1030. [PMID: 26290779 PMCID: PMC4540050 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.1030] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/04/2015] [Accepted: 05/26/2015] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Plant recovery rates after herbivory are thought to be a key factor driving recursion by herbivores to sites and plants to optimise resource-use but have not been investigated as an explanation for recursion in large herbivores. We investigated the relationship between plant recovery and recursion by elephants (Elephas maximus borneensis) in the Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary, Sabah. We identified 182 recently eaten food plants, from 30 species, along 14 × 50 m transects and measured their recovery growth each month over nine months or until they were re-browsed by elephants. The monthly growth in leaf and branch or shoot length for each plant was used to calculate the time required (months) for each species to recover to its pre-eaten length. Elephant returned to all but two transects with 10 eaten plants, a further 26 plants died leaving 146 plants that could be re-eaten. Recursion occurred to 58% of all plants and 12 of the 30 species. Seventy-seven percent of the re-eaten plants were grasses. Recovery times to all plants varied from two to twenty months depending on the species. Recursion to all grasses coincided with plant recovery whereas recursion to most browsed plants occurred four to twelve months before they had recovered to their previous length. The small sample size of many browsed plants that received recursion and uneven plant species distribution across transects limits our ability to generalise for most browsed species but a prominent pattern in plant-scale recursion did emerge. Plant recovery time was a good predictor of time to recursion but varied as a function of growth form (grass, ginger, palm, liana and woody) and differences between sites. Time to plant recursion coincided with plant recovery time for the elephant’s preferred food, grasses, and perhaps also gingers, but not the other browsed species. Elephants are bulk feeders so it is likely that they time their returns to bulk feed on these grass species when quantities have recovered sufficiently to meet their intake requirements. The implications for habitat and elephant management are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Megan English
- Centre for Biodiversity and Restoration Ecology, School of Biological Sciences, Victoria University of Wellington , New Zealand
| | - Graeme Gillespie
- Department of Zoology, University of Melbourne , Parkville, Victoria , Australia
| | - Benoit Goossens
- Danau Girang Field Centre, c/o Sabah Wildlife Department , Kota Kinabalu, Sabah , Malaysia ; Organisms and Environment Division School of Biosciences, Cardiff University , Cardiff , UK ; Sabah Wildlife Department , Kota Kinabalu, Sabah , Malaysia
| | - Sulaiman Ismail
- HUTAN Elephant Conservation Unit and Kinabatangan Orangutan Conservation Project , Sukau Sabah , Malaysia
| | - Marc Ancrenaz
- HUTAN Elephant Conservation Unit and Kinabatangan Orangutan Conservation Project , Sukau Sabah , Malaysia
| | - Wayne Linklater
- Centre for Biodiversity and Restoration Ecology, School of Biological Sciences, Victoria University of Wellington , New Zealand ; Centre for African Conservation Ecology, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University , Port Elizabeth , South Africa
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Bee- to bird-pollination shifts in Penstemon: effects of floral-lip removal and corolla constriction on the preferences of free-foraging bumble bees. Evol Ecol 2015. [DOI: 10.1007/s10682-014-9716-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
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12
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Huo M, Heyvaert M, Van den Noortgate W, Onghena P. Permutation Tests in the Educational and Behavioral Sciences. METHODOLOGY-EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF RESEARCH METHODS FOR THE BEHAVIORAL AND SOCIAL SCIENCES 2014. [DOI: 10.1027/1614-2241/a000067] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/28/2023] Open
Abstract
Over the past two decades, permutation tests (PTs) have received much attention in the educational and behavioral sciences. The aim of this article is to review the theoretical developments of PTs, the active areas in the educational and behavioral research using PTs, and the types of analysis under which PTs have been applied. We obtained 224 published articles, which included 141 theoretical articles and 83 application articles. After scrutinizing each article, we are happy to see that (1) some researchers began to advocate introducing PTs into basic statistics training; (2) computing load for PTs may be reduced dramatically by some intelligent algorithms; (3) PTs began to be applied in new areas such as studies on the relationship between brain and behavior and the relationship between gene and behavior; (4) besides simple types of analysis such as independent two-group comparison, PTs can also be carried out under more complex situations such as multivariate analysis. However, we should also notice that PTs are still mostly used for simple analyses (e.g., randomness analysis).
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Affiliation(s)
- Ming Huo
- Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Methodology of Educational Science Research Group, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium
| | - Mieke Heyvaert
- Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Methodology of Educational Science Research Group, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium
| | - Wim Van den Noortgate
- Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Methodology of Educational Science Research Group, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium
| | - Patrick Onghena
- Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Methodology of Educational Science Research Group, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium
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Longer visits on familiar plants? Testing a regular visitor's tendency to probe more flowers than occasional visitors. Naturwissenschaften 2013; 100:659-66. [PMID: 23793296 DOI: 10.1007/s00114-013-1062-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/11/2013] [Revised: 04/20/2013] [Accepted: 05/17/2013] [Indexed: 10/26/2022]
Abstract
An individual pollinator may tend to consecutively probe more flowers on a plant to which it returns at shorter intervals than other plants. In a large net cage, I let individually marked bumble bees forage on flowering heads of red clovers arranged in 37 bottles (plants), each of which was monitored by an observer to record every visit and probe for 2.5 h on each of 3 days. The data of collective visits by marked individuals revealed that the bees had their own foraging areas, in which they visited a set of plants frequently and others less often, i.e., the same individual bee repeatedly returned to certain plants as a regular visitor while sampling others as an occasional visitor. I further found that as a regular visitor, an individual bee tended to probe more flowering heads on familiar plants while probing fewer on unfamiliar plants as an occasional visitor. The mean number of consecutive probes by a bee was also positively correlated with its activity (the total number of plant visits made during the observation period). The fact that each bee behaves differently on different plants indicates that the same individual pollinator can exert different influence on the reproductive success of each plant: apparently, a pollinator likely reduces the potential for geitonogamous self-pollination when foraging as an occasional visitor. Attracting occasional visitors therefore may be beneficial for plants to avoid geitonogamy. This study thus emphasizes the importance of paying attention to pollinator individuality in pollination ecology.
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14
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Ohashi K, Thomson JD. Trapline foraging by bumble bees: VI. Behavioral alterations under speed–accuracy trade-offs. Behav Ecol 2012. [DOI: 10.1093/beheco/ars152] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
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Lučić P, Teodorović D. Computing with Bees: Attacking Complex Transportation Engineering Problems. INT J ARTIF INTELL T 2011. [DOI: 10.1142/s0218213003001289] [Citation(s) in RCA: 122] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
Abstract
The Bee System (an artificial bee swarm) is introduced in this paper. The proposed approach is applied to the Traveling Salesman Problem. The obtained results are very promising. The potential applications of the developed Bee System in the field of transportation engineering are discussed. The Bee System represents the new, successful application of emergent techniques based on natural metaphors, such as simulated annealing, genetic algorithms, and neural networks, to the complex engineering and management problems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Panta Lučić
- The Charles E. Via Jr. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Northern Virginia Center, 7054 Haycock Road, Falls Church, VA 22043-2311, U.S.A
| | - Dušan Teodorović
- The Charles E. Via Jr. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Northern Virginia Center, 7054 Haycock Road, Falls Church, VA 22043-2311, U.S.A
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16
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Plant–pollinator population dynamics. Theor Popul Biol 2010; 78:270-7. [DOI: 10.1016/j.tpb.2010.08.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 40] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/06/2010] [Revised: 07/05/2010] [Accepted: 08/18/2010] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
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Lihoreau M, Chittka L, Raine NE. Travel optimization by foraging bumblebees through readjustments of traplines after discovery of new feeding locations. Am Nat 2010; 176:744-57. [PMID: 20973670 DOI: 10.1086/657042] [Citation(s) in RCA: 88] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/03/2022]
Abstract
Animals collecting resources that replenish over time often visit patches in predictable sequences called traplines. Despite the widespread nature of this strategy, we still know little about how spatial memory develops and guides individuals toward suitable routes. Here, we investigate whether flower visitation sequences by bumblebees Bombus terrestris simply reflect the order in which flowers were discovered or whether they result from more complex navigational strategies enabling bees to optimize their foraging routes. We analyzed bee flight movements in an array of four artificial flowers maximizing interfloral distances. Starting from a single patch, we sequentially added three new patches so that if bees visited them in the order in which they originally encountered flowers, they would follow a long (suboptimal) route. Bees' tendency to visit patches in their discovery order decreased with experience. Instead, they optimized their flight distances by rearranging flower visitation sequences. This resulted in the development of a primary route (trapline) and two or three less frequently used secondary routes. Bees consistently used these routes after overnight breaks while occasionally exploring novel possibilities. We discuss how maintaining some level of route flexibility could allow traplining animals to cope with dynamic routing problems, analogous to the well-known traveling salesman problem.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mathieu Lihoreau
- Research Centre for Psychology, School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Road, London E1 4NS, United Kingdom
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18
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Comba L. Patch use by bumblebees (Hymenoptera Apidae): temperature, wind, flower density and traplining. ETHOL ECOL EVOL 2010. [DOI: 10.1080/08927014.1999.9522826] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Livio Comba
- a Dipartimento di Biologia Animale e dell'Uomo – Zoologia , Università di Roma “La Sapienza” , Viale dell'Università 32, 00185 , Roma , Italy
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19
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An automated system for tracking and identifying individual nectar foragers at multiple feeders. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 2010. [DOI: 10.1007/s00265-010-0907-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
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Ohashi K, Thomson JD. Trapline foraging by pollinators: its ontogeny, economics and possible consequences for plants. ANNALS OF BOTANY 2009; 103:1365-78. [PMID: 19398446 PMCID: PMC2701764 DOI: 10.1093/aob/mcp088] [Citation(s) in RCA: 61] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/12/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Trapline foraging (repeated sequential visits to a series of feeding locations) has been often observed in pollinators collecting nectar or pollen from flowers. Although field studies on bumble-bees and hummingbirds have clarified fundamental aspects of this behaviour, trapline foraging still poses several difficult questions from the perspectives of both animals and plants. These questions include whether and how traplining improves foraging performance, how animals develop traplines with accumulating foraging experience, and how traplining affects pollen flow or plant reproduction. SCOPE First, we review our previous work performed by using computer simulations and indoor flight-cage experiments with bumble-bees foraging from arrays of automated feeders. Our findings include the following: (1) traplining benefits foragers that are competing for resources that replenish in a decelerating way, (2) traplining is a learned behaviour that develops over a period of hours and (3) the establishment of traplines could be hampered by spatial configuration of plants such as zigzags. Second, using a simulation model linking pollinator movement and pollen transfer, we consider how service by pollinators with different foraging patterns (searchers or trapliners) would affect pollen flow. Traplining increases mating distance and mate diversity, and reduces 'iterogamy' (self-pollination caused by return visits) at the population level. Furthermore, increased visitation rates can have opposite effects on the reproductive success of a plant, depending on whether the visitors are traplining or searching. Finally, we discuss possible consequences of traplining for plants in the light of new experimental work and modelling. CONCLUSIONS We suggest that trapline foraging by pollinators increases variation among plant populations in genetic diversity, inbreeding depression and contributions of floral traits to plant fitness, which should in turn affect the rates and directions of floral evolution. More theoretical and empirical studies are needed to clarify possible outcomes of such a neglected side of pollination.
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Ohashi K, Leslie A, Thomson JD. Trapline foraging by bumble bees: V. Effects of experience and priority on competitive performance. Behav Ecol 2008. [DOI: 10.1093/beheco/arn048] [Citation(s) in RCA: 51] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
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Janson CH, Byrne R. What wild primates know about resources: opening up the black box. Anim Cogn 2007; 10:357-67. [PMID: 17393193 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-007-0080-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 122] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/28/2005] [Revised: 01/03/2007] [Accepted: 01/21/2007] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
We present the theoretical and practical difficulties of inferring the cognitive processes involved in spatial movement decisions of primates and other animals based on studies of their foraging behavior in the wild. Because the possible cognitive processes involved in foraging are not known a priori for a given species, some observed spatial movements could be consistent with a large number of processes ranging from simple undirected search processes to strategic goal-oriented travel. Two basic approaches can help to reveal the cognitive processes: (1) experiments designed to test specific mechanisms; (2) comparison of observed movements with predicted ones based on models of hypothesized foraging modes (ideally, quantitative ones). We describe how these two approaches have been applied to evidence for spatial knowledge of resources in primates, and for various hypothesized goals of spatial decisions in primates, reviewing what is now established. We conclude with a synthesis emphasizing what kinds of spatial movement data on unmanipulated primate populations in the wild are most useful in deciphering goal-oriented processes from random processes. Basic to all of these is an estimate of the animal's ability to detect resources during search. Given knowledge of the animal's detection ability, there are several observable patterns of resource use incompatible with a pure search process. These patterns include increasing movement speed when approaching versus leaving a resource, increasingly directed movement toward more valuable resources, and directed travel to distant resources from many starting locations. Thus, it should be possible to assess and compare spatial cognition across a variety of primate species and thus trace its ecological and evolutionary correlates.
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Affiliation(s)
- Charles H Janson
- Department of Ecology and Evolution, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA.
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MAKINO TT, OHASHI K, SAKAI S. How do floral display size and the density of surrounding flowers influence the likelihood of bumble bee revisitation to a plant? Funct Ecol 2007. [DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2435.2006.01211.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 56] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
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Wilson P, Wolfe AD, Armbruster WS, Thomson JD. Constrained lability in floral evolution: counting convergent origins of hummingbird pollination in Penstemon and Keckiella. THE NEW PHYTOLOGIST 2007; 176:883-890. [PMID: 17897322 DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-8137.2007.02219.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 79] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/17/2023]
Abstract
In the clade of Penstemon and segregate genera, pollination syndromes are well defined among the 284 species. Most display combinations of floral characters associated with pollination by Hymenoptera, the ancestral mode of pollination for this clade. Forty-one species present characters associated with hummingbird pollination, although some of these ornithophiles are also visited by insects. The ornithophiles are scattered throughout the traditional taxonomy and across phylogenies estimated from nuclear (internal transcribed spacer (ITS)) and chloroplast DNA (trnCD/TL) sequence data. Here, the number of separate origins of ornithophily is estimated, using bootstrap phylogenies and constrained parsimony searches. Analyses suggest 21 separate origins, with overwhelming support for 10 of these. Because species sampling was incomplete, this is probably an underestimate. Penstemons therefore show great evolutionary lability with respect to acquiring hummingbird pollination; this syndrome acts as an attractor to which species with large sympetalous nectar-rich flowers have frequently been drawn. By contrast, penstemons have not undergone evolutionary shifts backwards or to other pollination syndromes. Thus, they are an example of both striking evolutionary lability and constrained evolution.
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Affiliation(s)
- Paul Wilson
- Department of Biology, California State University, Northridge, CA 91330-8303, USA
| | - Andrea D Wolfe
- Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology, The Ohio State University, 318 West 12th Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210, USA
| | - W Scott Armbruster
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth PO1 2DY, UK
- Institute of Arctic Biology, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, Alaska 99775-7000, USA
- Department of Biology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, N-7491 Trondheim, Norway
| | - James D Thomson
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3G5, Canada; Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory, Crested Butte, CO 81224-0519, USA
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Saleh N, Chittka L. Traplining in bumblebees (Bombus impatiens): a foraging strategy's ontogeny and the importance of spatial reference memory in short-range foraging. Oecologia 2006; 151:719-30. [PMID: 17136553 DOI: 10.1007/s00442-006-0607-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 56] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/28/2006] [Accepted: 11/02/2006] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
To test the relative importance of long-term and working spatial memories in short-range foraging in bumblebees, we compared the performance of two groups of bees. One group foraged in a stable array of six flowers for 40 foraging bouts, thereby enabling it to establish a long-term memory of the array, and adjust its spatial movements accordingly. The other group was faced with an array that changed between (but not within) foraging bouts, and thus had only access to a working memory of the flowers that had been visited. Bees in the stable array started out sampling a variety of routes, but their tendency to visit flowers in a repeatable, stable order ("traplining") increased drastically with experience. These bees used shorter routes and converged on four popular paths. However, these routes were mainly formed through linking pairs of flowers by near-neighbour movements, rather than attempting to minimize overall travel distance. Individuals had variations to a primary sequence, where some bees used a major sequence most often, followed by a minor less used route, and others used two different routes with equal frequency. Even though bees foraging in the spatially randomized array had access to both spatial working memory and scent marks, this manipulation greatly disrupted foraging efficiency, mainly via an increase in revisitation to previously emptied flowers and substantially longer search times. Hence, a stable reference frame greatly improves foraging even for bees in relatively small arrays of flowers.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nehal Saleh
- School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary College, University of London, Mile End Road, London, UK.
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Gibson K, Hall C, Kramer D. Time-concentrated sampling: a simple strategy for information gain at a novel, depleted patch. CAN J ZOOL 2006. [DOI: 10.1139/z06-139] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
Abstract
When an animal has found and consumed food at a new location, information about whether and when food will be present again could improve future foraging efficiency. A series of rapid returns followed by less frequent visits and finally abandonment of the patch could provide such information. By analogy with area-concentrated (area-restricted) search, we call this hypothesized pattern “time-concentrated sampling”. We tested whether eastern chipmunks ( Tamias striatus (L., 1758)) would show time-concentrated sampling in the field and whether the pattern of visits would be affected by patch value. We used peanuts to induce animals to discover a small patch of sunflower seeds. After depleting the patch, returning to find it empty, and leaving without food, 36 of 40 animals returned on sampling visits. Sampling rate was initially high and declined over 4 h. The number of peanuts and number of visits where seeds were obtained positively predicted sampling rate, but the volume of sunflower seeds presented and the distance to the burrow did not. We conclude that chipmunks exhibit flexible time-concentrated sampling.
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Affiliation(s)
- K.W. Gibson
- Department of Biology, McGill University, 1205 Avenue Docteur Penfield, Montreal, QC H3A 1B1, Canada
| | - C.L. Hall
- Department of Biology, McGill University, 1205 Avenue Docteur Penfield, Montreal, QC H3A 1B1, Canada
| | - D.L. Kramer
- Department of Biology, McGill University, 1205 Avenue Docteur Penfield, Montreal, QC H3A 1B1, Canada
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Ohashi K, Thomson JD, D'Souza D. Trapline foraging by bumble bees: IV. Optimization of route geometry in the absence of competition. Behav Ecol 2006. [DOI: 10.1093/beheco/arl053] [Citation(s) in RCA: 67] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
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Raine NE, Ings TC, Dornhaus A, Saleh N, Chittka L. Adaptation, Genetic Drift, Pleiotropy, and History in the Evolution of Bee Foraging Behavior. ADVANCES IN THE STUDY OF BEHAVIOR 2006. [DOI: 10.1016/s0065-3454(06)36007-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 97] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
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Burns JG, Thomson JD. A test of spatial memory and movement patterns of bumblebees at multiple spatial and temporal scales. Behav Ecol 2005. [DOI: 10.1093/beheco/arj002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 44] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022] Open
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Bartumeus F, da Luz MGE, Viswanathan GM, Catalan J. ANIMAL SEARCH STRATEGIES: A QUANTITATIVE RANDOM-WALK ANALYSIS. Ecology 2005. [DOI: 10.1890/04-1806] [Citation(s) in RCA: 451] [Impact Index Per Article: 23.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
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Beauchamp G, Ruxton GD. Harvesting resources in groups or alone: the case of renewing patches. Behav Ecol 2005. [DOI: 10.1093/beheco/ari077] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
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Dukas R, Morse DH, Myles S. Experience levels of individuals in natural bee populations and their ecological implications. CAN J ZOOL 2005. [DOI: 10.1139/z05-050] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
Abstract
Learning difficult tasks requires an extended period of experience. It is unclear, however, what level of experience is exhibited by individuals in natural populations. If many individuals are rather inexperienced at any given time, they may not possess subtle information concerning, for example, local distributions of reward and danger, which may require long acquisition periods. To quantify individual experience in field settings, we conducted a field study involving extensive marking of individual honey bees (Apis mellifera L., 1758) and bumble bees (Bombus vagans Smith, 1854 and Bombus terricola Kirby, 1837) visiting milkweed (Asclepias syriaca L.) patches that harbored crab spiders (Misumena vatia (Clerck, 1757)), which prey on bees. The vast majority of bees either were fully inexperienced or had little experience with the specific flower patch that they were visiting. It is likely that such inexperienced bees do not possess subtle local information involving either reward or danger. Contrary to our prediction, even the most experienced bees did not avoid experimental patches harboring crab spiders, perhaps because even these bees did not possess sufficient experience. Our results indicate that conclusions from controlled laboratory experiments may not readily generalize to natural field settings. Thus, we must gather additional data on the long-term behavior of individually marked bees in natural conditions to better understand the interactions among flowers, bees, and bees' predators.
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Makino TT, Sakai S. Does interaction between bumblebees (Bombus ignitus) reduce their foraging area?: bee-removal experiments in a net cage. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 2004. [DOI: 10.1007/s00265-004-0877-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/26/2022]
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Castellanos MC, Wilson P, Thomson JD. 'Anti-bee' and 'pro-bird' changes during the evolution of hummingbird pollination in Penstemon flowers. J Evol Biol 2004; 17:876-85. [PMID: 15271088 DOI: 10.1111/j.1420-9101.2004.00729.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 136] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Floral phenotypes may be as much the result of selection for avoidance of some animal visitors as selection for improving the interaction with better pollinators. When specializing on hummingbird-pollination, Penstemon flowers may have evolved to improve the morphological fit between bird and flower, or to exclude less-efficient bees, or both. We hypothesized how such selection might work on four floral characters that affect the mechanics of pollen transfer: anther/stigma exsertion, presence of a lower corolla lip, width of the corolla tube, and angle of flower inclination. We surgically modified bee-pollinated P. strictus flowers changing one trait at a time to make them resemble hummingbird-pollinated P. barbatus flowers, and measured pollen transfer by bumblebees and hummingbirds. Results suggest that, apart from 'pro-bird' adaptations, specific 'anti-bee' adaptations have been important in shaping hummingbird-flowers. Moreover, some trait changes may have been selected for only if changing in concert with other traits.
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Affiliation(s)
- M C Castellanos
- Department of Zoology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.
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Affiliation(s)
- James Thomson
- Department of Zoology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3G5, Canada.
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Vehicle Routing Problem With Uncertain Demand at Nodes: The Bee System and Fuzzy Logic Approach. FUZZY SETS BASED HEURISTICS FOR OPTIMIZATION 2003. [DOI: 10.1007/978-3-540-36461-0_5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 34] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/30/2023]
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Castellanos MC, Wilson P, Thomson JD. POLLEN TRANSFER BY HUMMINGBIRDS AND BUMBLEBEES, AND THE DIVERGENCE OF POLLINATION MODES IN PENSTEMON. Evolution 2003. [DOI: 10.1554/03-215] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
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Ohashi K, Yahara T. Visit larger displays but probe proportionally fewer flowers: counterintuitive behaviour of nectar-collecting bumble bees achieves an ideal free distribution. Funct Ecol 2002. [DOI: 10.1046/j.1365-2435.2002.00644.x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 88] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
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Castellanos MC, Wilson P, Thomson JD. Dynamic nectar replenishment in flowers of Penstemon (Scrophulariaceae). AMERICAN JOURNAL OF BOTANY 2002; 89:111-118. [PMID: 21669718 DOI: 10.3732/ajb.89.1.111] [Citation(s) in RCA: 70] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/30/2023]
Abstract
Plants that experience variation in pollinator visitation rates or fluctuations in weather conditions may be expected to have evolved homeostatic mechanisms that regulate their nectar offerings, thereby providing a more constant reward to the pollinators. A limited degree of such nectar homeostasis is reported here for Penstemon. First, nectar removal stimulates replenishment: when nectar was removed hourly for 6 h from P. speciosus, twice as much nectar was secreted cumulatively as when nectar was removed only at the beginning and end of the same 6-h period. Second, replacing artificial nectar in the nectaries of P. speciosus prevents replenishment. Third, the hummingbird-adapted P. barbatus made more nectar before leveling off than the bee-adapted P. strictus. Our work and previous studies with other plants imply mechanisms for dynamic regulation of nectar offerings, at least within broad limits. We speculate about the proximate physiology underlying this behavior and its evolutionary significance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maria Clara Castellanos
- Department of Ecology and Evolution, State University of New York, Stony Brook, New York 11794-5245 USA; and
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