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Hasenjager MJ, Hoppitt W, Cunningham-Eurich I, Franks VR, Leadbeater E. Coupled information networks drive honeybee (Apis mellifera) collective foraging. J Anim Ecol 2024; 93:71-82. [PMID: 38009606 DOI: 10.1111/1365-2656.14029] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/08/2023] [Accepted: 10/13/2023] [Indexed: 11/29/2023]
Abstract
Collective behaviour by eusocial insect colonies is typically achieved through multiple communication networks that produce complex behaviour at the group level but often appear to provide redundant or even competing information. A classic example occurs in honeybee (Apis mellifera) colonies, where both the dance communication system and robust scent-based mechanisms contribute to the allocation of a colony's workforce by regulating the flow of experienced foragers among known food sources. Here we analysed social connectivity patterns during the reactivation of experienced foragers to familiar feeding sites to show that these social information pathways are not simply multiple means to achieve the same end but intersect to play complementary roles in guiding forager behaviour. Using artificial feeding stations, we mimicked a natural scenario in which two forager groups were simultaneously collecting from distinct patches containing different flowering species. We then observed the reactivation of these groups at their familiar feeding sites after interrupting their foraging. Social network analysis revealed that temporarily unemployed individuals interacted more often and for longer with foragers that advertised a familiar versus unfamiliar foraging site. Due to such resource-based assortative mixing, network-based diffusion analysis estimated that reactivation events primarily resulted from interactions among bees that had been trained to the same feeding station and less so from different-feeder interactions. Both scent- and dance-based interactions strongly contributed to reactivation decisions. However, each bout of dance-following had an especially strong effect on a follower's likelihood of reactivation, particularly when dances indicated locations familiar to followers. Our findings illustrate how honeybee foragers can alter their social connectivity in ways that are likely to enhance collective outcomes by enabling foragers to rapidly access up-to-date information about familiar foraging sites. In addition, our results highlight how reliance on multiple communication mechanisms enables social insect workers to utilise flexible information-use strategies that are robust to variation in the availability of social information.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matthew J Hasenjager
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA
- National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA
- Department of Biological Sciences, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, UK
| | - William Hoppitt
- Department of Biological Sciences, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, UK
| | - Iona Cunningham-Eurich
- Department of Biological Sciences, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, UK
- Natural History Museum, London, UK
- Department of Genetics, Evolution, and Environment, University College London, London, UK
| | - Victoria R Franks
- Department of Biological Sciences, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, UK
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Chester, Chester, UK
| | - Ellouise Leadbeater
- Department of Biological Sciences, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, UK
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2
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Alves DA, George EA, Kaur R, Brockmann A, Hrncir M, Grüter C. Diverse communication strategies in bees as a window into adaptations to an unpredictable world. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2023; 120:e2219031120. [PMID: 37279263 PMCID: PMC10268221 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2219031120] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/08/2023] Open
Abstract
Communication is a fundamental feature of animal societies and helps their members to solve the challenges they encounter, from exploiting food sources to fighting enemies or finding a new home. Eusocial bees inhabit a wide range of environments and they have evolved a multitude of communication signals that help them exploit resources in their environment efficiently. We highlight recent advances in our understanding of bee communication strategies and discuss how variation in social biology, such as colony size or nesting habits, and ecological conditions are important drivers of variation in communication strategies. Anthropogenic factors, such as habitat conversion, climate change, or the use of agrochemicals, are changing the world bees inhabit, and it is becoming clear that this affects communication both directly and indirectly, for example by affecting food source availability, social interactions among nestmates, and cognitive functions. Whether and how bees adapt their foraging and communication strategies to these changes represents a new frontier in bee behavioral and conservation research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Denise A. Alves
- Department of Entomology and Acarology, Luiz de Queiroz College of Agriculture, University of São Paulo, Lausanne,13418-900Piracicaba, Brazil
| | - Ebi A. George
- Department of Ecology and Evolution, Biophore, University of Lausanne, Bristol1015, Switzerland
| | - Rajbir Kaur
- School of Biological Sciences, University of BristolBS8 1TQ, United Kingdom
| | - Axel Brockmann
- National Centre for Biological Sciences – Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bengaluru560065, India
| | - Michael Hrncir
- Department of Physiology, Bioscience Institute, University of São Paulo05508-090São Paulo, Brazil
| | - Christoph Grüter
- School of Biological Sciences, University of BristolBS8 1TQ, United Kingdom
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3
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Jin MJ, Wang ZL, Wu ZH, He XJ, Zhang Y, Huang Q, Zhang LZ, Wu XB, Yan WY, Zeng ZJ. Phenotypic dimorphism between honeybee queen and worker is regulated by complicated epigenetic modifications. iScience 2023; 26:106308. [PMID: 36942051 PMCID: PMC10024153 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.106308] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/23/2022] [Revised: 01/12/2023] [Accepted: 02/24/2023] [Indexed: 03/14/2023] Open
Abstract
Phenotypic dimorphism between queens and workers is an important biological characteristic of honeybees that has been the subject of intensive research. The enormous differences in morphology, lifespan, physiology, and behavior between queens and workers are caused by a complicated set of factors. Epigenetic modifications are considered to play an important role in this process. In this study, we analyzed the differences in chromosome interactions and H3K27ac and H3K4me1 modifications between the queens and workers using high-throughput chromosome conformation capture (Hi-C) and Chromatin immunoprecipitation followed by sequencing (ChIP-Seq) technologies. We found that the queens contain more chromosome interactions and more unique H3K27ac modifications than workers; in contrast, workers have more H3K4me1 modifications than queens. Moreover, we identified Map3k15 as a potential caste gene in queen-worker differentiation. Our results suggest that chromosomal conformation and H3K27ac and H3K4me1 modifications are involved in regulating queen-worker differentiation, which reveals that the queen-worker phenotypic dimorphism is regulated by multiple epigenetic modifications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Meng Jie Jin
- Honeybee Research Institute, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Nanchang, Jiangxi 330045, P.R.China
- Jiangxi Province Honeybee Biology and Beekeeping, Nanchang, Jiangxi 330045, P. R. China
| | - Zi Long Wang
- Honeybee Research Institute, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Nanchang, Jiangxi 330045, P.R.China
- Jiangxi Province Honeybee Biology and Beekeeping, Nanchang, Jiangxi 330045, P. R. China
| | - Zhi Hao Wu
- Honeybee Research Institute, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Nanchang, Jiangxi 330045, P.R.China
- Jiangxi Province Honeybee Biology and Beekeeping, Nanchang, Jiangxi 330045, P. R. China
| | - Xu Jiang He
- Honeybee Research Institute, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Nanchang, Jiangxi 330045, P.R.China
- Jiangxi Province Honeybee Biology and Beekeeping, Nanchang, Jiangxi 330045, P. R. China
| | - Yong Zhang
- Honeybee Research Institute, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Nanchang, Jiangxi 330045, P.R.China
- Jiangxi Province Honeybee Biology and Beekeeping, Nanchang, Jiangxi 330045, P. R. China
| | - Qiang Huang
- Honeybee Research Institute, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Nanchang, Jiangxi 330045, P.R.China
- Jiangxi Province Honeybee Biology and Beekeeping, Nanchang, Jiangxi 330045, P. R. China
| | - Li Zhen Zhang
- Honeybee Research Institute, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Nanchang, Jiangxi 330045, P.R.China
- Jiangxi Province Honeybee Biology and Beekeeping, Nanchang, Jiangxi 330045, P. R. China
| | - Xiao Bo Wu
- Honeybee Research Institute, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Nanchang, Jiangxi 330045, P.R.China
- Jiangxi Province Honeybee Biology and Beekeeping, Nanchang, Jiangxi 330045, P. R. China
| | - Wei Yu Yan
- Honeybee Research Institute, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Nanchang, Jiangxi 330045, P.R.China
- Jiangxi Province Honeybee Biology and Beekeeping, Nanchang, Jiangxi 330045, P. R. China
| | - Zhi Jiang Zeng
- Honeybee Research Institute, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Nanchang, Jiangxi 330045, P.R.China
- Jiangxi Province Honeybee Biology and Beekeeping, Nanchang, Jiangxi 330045, P. R. China
- Corresponding author
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4
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Hayes L, Grüter C. When should bees be flower constant? An agent-based model highlights the importance of social information and foraging conditions. J Anim Ecol 2023; 92:580-593. [PMID: 36479701 DOI: 10.1111/1365-2656.13861] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/15/2022] [Accepted: 11/21/2022] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Abstract
Many bee species show flower constancy, that is, a tendency to visit flowers of one type during a foraging trip. Flower constancy is important for plant reproduction, but the benefits of constancy to bees is unclear. Social bees, which often use communication about food sources, show particularly strong flower constancy. We aimed to better understand the benefits of flower constancy in social bees and how these benefits depend on foraging conditions. We hypothesised that sharing social information increases the benefits of flower constancy because social foragers share information selectively about high-quality food sources, thereby reducing the need to sample alternatives. We developed an agent-based model that allowed us to simulate bee colonies with and without communication and flower constancy in different foraging environments. By varying key environmental parameters, such as food source numbers and reward size, we explored how the costs and benefits of flower constancy depend on the foraging landscape. Flower constancy alone performed poorly in all environments, while indiscriminate flower choice was often the most successful strategy. However, communication improved the performance of flower constant colonies considerably in most environments. This combination was particularly successful when high-quality food sources were abundant and competition was weak. Our findings help explain why social bees tend to be more flower constant than solitary bees and suggest that flower constancy can be an adaptive strategy in social bees. Simulations suggest that anthropogenic changes of foraging landscapes will have different effects on the foraging performance of bees that vary in flower constancy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lucy Hayes
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
| | - Christoph Grüter
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
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5
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Grüter C, Hayes L. Sociality is a key driver of foraging ranges in bees. Curr Biol 2022; 32:5390-5397.e3. [PMID: 36400034 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2022.10.064] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/08/2022] [Revised: 10/24/2022] [Accepted: 10/27/2022] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
Abstract
Bees are important pollinators of wild and agricultural plants1,2,3,4,5 and there is increasing evidence that many bee populations decline due to a combination of habitat loss, climate change, pesticides, and other anthropogenic effects.6,7,8,9,10,11 One trait that shapes both their role in plant reproduction12,13 and their exposure to anthropogenic stressors is the distance at which bees forage. It has been suggested that bee sociality14 and diet15 affect bee foraging ranges, but how these traits and their potential interactions drive foraging ranges remains unclear. We analyzed flight distance data from 90 bee species and developed an agent-based model to test how social, dietary, and environmental factors affect foraging ranges. We confirm that bee sociality is positively associated with foraging range, with average-sized social bees foraging up to 3 times farther from the nest than size-matched solitary bees. A comparative analysis of social bees and computer simulations shows that foraging distances increase with colony size, supporting the hypothesis that greater foraging distances are an emergent property of increasing colony sizes in a food-limited environment. Flower constancy and communication, two traits often found in social bees, synergistically increase foraging distances further in many simulated environments. Diet breadth (oligolectic versus polylectic diet), on the other hand, does not appear to affect foraging ranges in solitary bees. Our findings suggest that multiple traits linked to bee sociality explain why social bees have greater foraging ranges. This has implications for predicting pollination services and for developing effective conservation strategies for bees and isolated plant populations.15,16,17,18,19.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christoph Grüter
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, 24 Tyndall Avenue, BS8 1TQ Bristol, UK.
| | - Lucy Hayes
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, 24 Tyndall Avenue, BS8 1TQ Bristol, UK
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6
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Hasenjager MJ, Franks VR, Leadbeater E. From dyads to collectives: a review of honeybee signalling. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 2022. [DOI: 10.1007/s00265-022-03218-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
AbstractThe societies of honeybees (Apis spp.) are microcosms of divided labour where the fitness interests of individuals are so closely aligned that, in some contexts, the colony behaves as an entity in itself. Self-organization at this extraordinary level requires sophisticated communication networks, so it is not surprising that the celebrated waggle dance, by which bees share information about locations outside the hive, evolved here. Yet bees within the colony respond to several other lesser-known signalling systems, including the tremble dance, the stop signal and the shaking signal, whose roles in coordinating worker behaviour are not yet fully understood. Here, we firstly bring together the large but disparate historical body of work that has investigated the “meaning” of such signals for individual bees, before going on to discuss how network-based approaches can show how such signals function as a complex system to control the collective foraging effort of these remarkable social insect societies.
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7
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Xie D, Yin K, Yang ZJ, Huang H, Li X, Shu Z, Duan H, He J, Jiang J. Polarization-perceptual anisotropic two-dimensional ReS 2 neuro-transistor with reconfigurable neuromorphic vision. MATERIALS HORIZONS 2022; 9:1448-1459. [PMID: 35234765 DOI: 10.1039/d1mh02036f] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
Polarization is a common and unique phenomenon in nature, which reveals more camouflage features of objects. However, current polarization-perceptual devices based on conventional physical architectures face enormous challenges for high-performance computation due to the traditional von Neumann bottleneck. In this work, a novel polarization-perceptual neuro-transistor with reconfigurable anisotropic vision is proposed based on a two-dimensional ReS2 phototransistor. The device exhibits excellent photodetection ability and superior polarization sensitivity due to its direct band gap semiconductor property and strong anisotropic crystal structure, respectively. The fascinating polarization-sensitive neuromorphic behavior, such as polarization memory consolidation and reconfigurable visual imaging, are successfully realized. In particular, the regulated polarization responsivity and dichroic ratio are successfully emulated through our artificial compound eyes. More importantly, two intriguing polarization-perceptual applications for polarized navigation with reconfigurable adaptive learning abilities and three-dimensional visual polarization imaging are also experimentally demonstrated. The proposed device may provide a promising opportunity for future polarization perception systems in intelligent humanoid robots and autonomous vehicles.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dingdong Xie
- Hunan Key Laboratory of Nanophotonics and Devices, School of Physics and Electronics, Central South University, 932 South Lushan Road, Changsha, Hunan 410083, P. R. China.
| | - Kai Yin
- Hunan Key Laboratory of Nanophotonics and Devices, School of Physics and Electronics, Central South University, 932 South Lushan Road, Changsha, Hunan 410083, P. R. China.
| | - Zhong-Jian Yang
- Hunan Key Laboratory of Nanophotonics and Devices, School of Physics and Electronics, Central South University, 932 South Lushan Road, Changsha, Hunan 410083, P. R. China.
| | - Han Huang
- Hunan Key Laboratory of Nanophotonics and Devices, School of Physics and Electronics, Central South University, 932 South Lushan Road, Changsha, Hunan 410083, P. R. China.
| | - Xiaohui Li
- School of Physics and Information Technology, Shanxi Normal University, Xi'an 710119, P. R. China
| | - Zhiwen Shu
- State Key Laboratory of Advanced Design and Manufacturing for Vehicle Body, College of Mechanical and Vehicle Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, P. R. China
| | - Huigao Duan
- State Key Laboratory of Advanced Design and Manufacturing for Vehicle Body, College of Mechanical and Vehicle Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, P. R. China
| | - Jun He
- Hunan Key Laboratory of Nanophotonics and Devices, School of Physics and Electronics, Central South University, 932 South Lushan Road, Changsha, Hunan 410083, P. R. China.
| | - Jie Jiang
- Hunan Key Laboratory of Nanophotonics and Devices, School of Physics and Electronics, Central South University, 932 South Lushan Road, Changsha, Hunan 410083, P. R. China.
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8
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Killen SS, Cortese D, Cotgrove L, Jolles JW, Munson A, Ioannou CC. The Potential for Physiological Performance Curves to Shape Environmental Effects on Social Behavior. Front Physiol 2021; 12:754719. [PMID: 34858209 PMCID: PMC8632012 DOI: 10.3389/fphys.2021.754719] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/06/2021] [Accepted: 10/19/2021] [Indexed: 01/03/2023] Open
Abstract
As individual animals are exposed to varying environmental conditions, phenotypic plasticity will occur in a vast array of physiological traits. For example, shifts in factors such as temperature and oxygen availability can affect the energy demand, cardiovascular system, and neuromuscular function of animals that in turn impact individual behavior. Here, we argue that nonlinear changes in the physiological traits and performance of animals across environmental gradients—known as physiological performance curves—may have wide-ranging effects on the behavior of individual social group members and the functioning of animal social groups as a whole. Previous work has demonstrated how variation between individuals can have profound implications for socially living animals, as well as how environmental conditions affect social behavior. However, the importance of variation between individuals in how they respond to changing environmental conditions has so far been largely overlooked in the context of animal social behavior. First, we consider the broad effects that individual variation in performance curves may have on the behavior of socially living animals, including: (1) changes in the rank order of performance capacity among group mates across environments; (2) environment-dependent changes in the amount of among- and within-individual variation, and (3) differences among group members in terms of the environmental optima, the critical environmental limits, and the peak capacity and breadth of performance. We then consider the ecological implications of these effects for a range of socially mediated phenomena, including within-group conflict, within- and among group assortment, collective movement, social foraging, predator-prey interactions and disease and parasite transfer. We end by outlining the type of empirical work required to test the implications for physiological performance curves in social behavior.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shaun S Killen
- Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health and Comparative Medicine, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom
| | - Daphne Cortese
- Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health and Comparative Medicine, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom
| | - Lucy Cotgrove
- Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health and Comparative Medicine, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom
| | - Jolle W Jolles
- Center for Ecological Research and Forestry Applications (CREAF), Campus de Bellaterra (UAB), Barcelona, Spain
| | - Amelia Munson
- Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health and Comparative Medicine, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom
| | - Christos C Ioannou
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom
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9
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I’Anson Price R, Segers F, Berger A, Nascimento FS, Grüter C. An exploration of the relationship between recruitment communication and foraging in stingless bees. Curr Zool 2021; 67:551-560. [PMID: 34616953 PMCID: PMC8489157 DOI: 10.1093/cz/zoab043] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/13/2020] [Accepted: 05/08/2021] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Social information is widely used in the animal kingdom and can be highly adaptive. In social insects, foragers can use social information to find food, avoid danger, or choose a new nest site. Copying others allows individuals to obtain information without having to sample the environment. When foragers communicate information they will often only advertise high-quality food sources, thereby filtering out less adaptive information. Stingless bees, a large pantropical group of highly eusocial bees, face intense inter- and intra-specific competition for limited resources, yet display disparate foraging strategies. Within the same environment there are species that communicate the location of food resources to nest-mates and species that do not. Our current understanding of why some species communicate foraging sites while others do not is limited. Studying freely foraging colonies of several co-existing stingless bee species in Brazil, we investigated if recruitment to specific food locations is linked to 1) the sugar content of forage, 2) the duration of foraging trips, and 3) the variation in activity of a colony from 1 day to another and the variation in activity in a species over a day. We found that, contrary to our expectations, species with recruitment communication did not return with higher quality forage than species that do not recruit nestmates. Furthermore, foragers from recruiting species did not have shorter foraging trip durations than those from weakly recruiting species. Given the intense inter- and intraspecific competition for resources in these environments, it may be that recruiting species favor food resources that can be monopolized by the colony rather than food sources that offer high-quality rewards.
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Affiliation(s)
- Robbie I’Anson Price
- Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, Lausanne 1015, Switzerland
- Swiss Centre for Affective Sciences, University of Geneva, Genève 1201, Switzerland
| | - Francisca Segers
- Department for Applied Bioinformatics, Institute of Cell Biology and Neuroscience, Goethe University, Frankfurt 60438, Germany
| | - Amelia Berger
- Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, Lausanne 1015, Switzerland
| | - Fabio S Nascimento
- Departamento de Biologia, Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto, Universidade de São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo CEP 14040-901, Brazil
| | - Christoph Grüter
- School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, 24 Tyndall Avenue, Bristol BS8 1TQ, UK
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10
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Hive geometry shapes the recruitment rate of honeybee colonies. J Math Biol 2021; 83:20. [PMID: 34324069 DOI: 10.1007/s00285-021-01644-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/30/2020] [Revised: 05/19/2021] [Accepted: 07/18/2021] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
Abstract
Honey bees make decisions regarding foraging and nest-site selection in groups ranging from hundreds to thousands of individuals. To effectively make these decisions, bees need to communicate within a spatially distributed group. However, the spatiotemporal dynamics of honey bee communication have been mostly overlooked in models of collective decisions, focusing primarily on mean field models of opinion dynamics. We analyze how the spatial properties of the nest or hive, and the movement of individuals with different belief states (uncommitted or committed) therein affect the rate of information transmission using spatially-extended models of collective decision-making within a hive. Honeybees waggle-dance to recruit conspecifics with an intensity that is a threshold nonlinear function of the waggler concentration. Our models range from treating the hive as a chain of discrete patches to a continuous line (long narrow hive). The combination of population-thresholded recruitment and compartmentalized populations generates tradeoffs between rapid information propagation with strong population dispersal and recruitment failures resulting from excessive population diffusion and also creates an effective colony-level signal-detection mechanism whereby recruitment to low quality objectives is blocked.
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11
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Kennedy A, Peng T, Glaser SM, Linn M, Foitzik S, Grüter C. Use of waggle dance information in honey bees is linked to gene expression in the antennae, but not in the brain. Mol Ecol 2021; 30:2676-2688. [PMID: 33742503 DOI: 10.1111/mec.15893] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/04/2020] [Revised: 03/12/2021] [Accepted: 03/15/2021] [Indexed: 12/26/2022]
Abstract
Communication is essential for social animals, but deciding how to utilize information provided by conspecifics is a complex process that depends on environmental and intrinsic factors. Honey bees use a unique form of communication, the waggle dance, to inform nestmates about the location of food sources. However, as in many other animals, experienced individuals often ignore this social information and prefer to rely on prior experiences, i.e., private information. The neurosensory factors that drive the decision to use social information are not yet understood. Here we test whether the decision to use social dance information or private information is linked to gene expression differences in different parts of the nervous system. We trained bees to collect food from sugar water feeders and observed whether they utilize social or private information when exposed to dances for a new food source. We performed transcriptome analysis of four brain parts (11-16 bees per tissue type) critical for cognition: the subesophageal ganglion, the central brain, the mushroom bodies, and the antennal lobes but, unexpectedly, detected no differences between social or private information users. In contrast, we found 413 differentially expressed genes in the antennae, suggesting that variation in sensory perception mediates the decision to use social information. Social information users were characterized by the upregulation of biogenic amine genes, while private information users upregulated several genes coding for odour perception. These results highlight that decision-making in honey bees might also depend on peripheral processes of perception rather than higher-order brain centres of information integration.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anissa Kennedy
- Institute of Organismic and Molecular Evolution, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Mainz, Germany
| | - Tianfei Peng
- Institute of Organismic and Molecular Evolution, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Mainz, Germany.,College of Plant Science, Jilin University, Changchun, China
| | - Simone M Glaser
- Institute of Organismic and Molecular Evolution, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Mainz, Germany
| | - Melissa Linn
- Institute of Organismic and Molecular Evolution, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Mainz, Germany
| | - Susanne Foitzik
- Institute of Organismic and Molecular Evolution, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Mainz, Germany
| | - Christoph Grüter
- Institute of Organismic and Molecular Evolution, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Mainz, Germany.,School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK
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12
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Cho Y, Jeong S, Lee D, Kim S, Park RJ, Gibson L, Zheng C, Park C. Foraging trip duration of honeybee increases during a poor air quality episode and the increase persists thereafter. Ecol Evol 2021; 11:1492-1500. [PMID: 33613984 PMCID: PMC7882926 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.7145] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/26/2020] [Revised: 11/16/2020] [Accepted: 12/03/2020] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Increased concentration of airborne particulate matter (PM) in the atmosphere alters the degree of polarization of skylight which is used by honeybees for navigation during their foraging trips. However, little has empirically shown whether poor air quality indeed affects foraging performance (foraging trip duration) of honeybee. Here, we show apparent increases in the average duration of honeybee foraging during and after a heavy air pollution event compared with that of the pre-event period. The average foraging duration of honeybees during the event increased by 32 min compared with the pre-event conditions, indicating that 71% more time was spent on foraging. Moreover, the average foraging duration measured after the event did not recover to its pre-event level. We further investigated whether an optical property (Depolarization Ratio, DR) of dominant PM in the atmosphere and level of air pollution (fine PM mass concentration) affect foraging trip duration. The result demonstrates the DR and fine PM mass concentration have significant effects on honeybee foraging trip duration. Foraging trip duration increases with decreasing DR while it increases with increasing fine PM mass concentration. In addition, the effects of fine PM mass concentration are synergistic with overcast skies. Our study implies that poor air quality could pose a new threat to bee foraging.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yoori Cho
- Department of Environmental PlanningGraduate School of Environmental StudiesSeoul National UniversitySeoulKorea
| | - Sujong Jeong
- Department of Environmental PlanningGraduate School of Environmental StudiesSeoul National UniversitySeoulKorea
| | - Dowon Lee
- Department of Environmental PlanningGraduate School of Environmental StudiesSeoul National UniversitySeoulKorea
| | - Sang‐Woo Kim
- School of Earth and Environmental SciencesSeoul National UniversitySeoulKorea
| | - Rokjin J. Park
- School of Earth and Environmental SciencesSeoul National UniversitySeoulKorea
| | - Luke Gibson
- School of Environmental Science and EngineeringSouthern University of Science and TechnologyShenzhenChina
| | - Chunmiao Zheng
- School of Environmental Science and EngineeringSouthern University of Science and TechnologyShenzhenChina
| | - Chan‐Ryul Park
- Urban Forests Research CenterNational Institute of Forest ServicesSeoulKorea
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Linn M, Glaser SM, Peng T, Grüter C. Octopamine and dopamine mediate waggle dance following and information use in honeybees. Proc Biol Sci 2020; 287:20201950. [PMID: 33049176 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2020.1950] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Honeybees can be directed to profitable food sources by following waggle dances performed by other bees. Followers can often choose between using this social information or relying on memories about food sources they have visited in the past, so-called private information. While the circumstances that favour the use of either social or private information have received considerable attention, still little is known about the neurophysiological basis of information use. We hypothesized that octopamine and dopamine, two biogenic amines with important functions in reward signalling and learning, affect dance use in honeybees. We orally administered octopamine and dopamine when bees collected food at artificial feeders and tested if this affected interest in dance information about a new food source. We predicted that octopamine reduces interest in dances and strengthens private information use via an increase in the perceived value of the previously exploited resource. Since dopamine has been shown to lower reward perception, we expected it to act in the opposite direction. Octopamine-treated foragers indeed followed 32% fewer dances than control bees and increased the use of private information. Conversely, dopamine-treated bees followed dances 15% longer than control bees, but surprisingly did not use social information more. Overall, our results suggest that biogenic amine signalling affects interactions among dancers and dance followers and, thus, information flow about high-quality food sources.
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Affiliation(s)
- Melissa Linn
- Institute of Organismic and Molecular Evolution, Johannes Gutenberg-University of Mainz, 55128 Mainz, Germany
| | - Simone M Glaser
- Institute of Organismic and Molecular Evolution, Johannes Gutenberg-University of Mainz, 55128 Mainz, Germany
| | - Tianfei Peng
- Institute of Organismic and Molecular Evolution, Johannes Gutenberg-University of Mainz, 55128 Mainz, Germany
| | - Christoph Grüter
- Institute of Organismic and Molecular Evolution, Johannes Gutenberg-University of Mainz, 55128 Mainz, Germany
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14
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Kohl PL, Thulasi N, Rutschmann B, George EA, Steffan-Dewenter I, Brockmann A. Adaptive evolution of honeybee dance dialects. Proc Biol Sci 2020; 287:20200190. [PMID: 32126959 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2020.0190] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Efficient communication is highly important for the evolutionary success of social animals. Honeybees (genus Apis) are unique in that they communicate the spatial information of resources using a symbolic 'language', the waggle dance. Different honeybee species differ in foraging ecology but it remains unknown whether this shaped variation in the dance. We studied distance dialects-interspecific differences in how waggle duration relates to flight distance-and tested the hypothesis that these evolved to maximize communication precision over the bees' foraging ranges. We performed feeder experiments with Apis cerana, A. florea and A. dorsata in India and found that A. cerana had the steepest dialect, i.e. a rapid increase in waggle duration with increasing feeder distance, A. florea had an intermediate, and A. dorsata had the lowest dialect. By decoding dances for natural food sites, we inferred that the foraging range was smallest in A. cerana, intermediate in A. florea and largest in A. dorsata. The inverse correlation between foraging range and dialect was corroborated when comparing six (sub)species across the geographical range of the genus including previously published data. We conclude that dance dialects constitute adaptations resulting from a trade-off between the spatial range and the spatial accuracy of communication.
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Affiliation(s)
- Patrick L Kohl
- National Centre for Biological Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bellary Road, Bangalore 560065, India.,Department of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology, Biocenter, University of Würzburg, Am Hubland, 97074 Würzburg, Germany
| | - Neethu Thulasi
- National Centre for Biological Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bellary Road, Bangalore 560065, India.,Department of Apiculture, University of Agricultural Sciences, GKVK, Bellary Road, Bangalore 560065, India
| | - Benjamin Rutschmann
- National Centre for Biological Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bellary Road, Bangalore 560065, India.,Department of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology, Biocenter, University of Würzburg, Am Hubland, 97074 Würzburg, Germany
| | - Ebi A George
- National Centre for Biological Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bellary Road, Bangalore 560065, India
| | - Ingolf Steffan-Dewenter
- Department of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology, Biocenter, University of Würzburg, Am Hubland, 97074 Würzburg, Germany
| | - Axel Brockmann
- National Centre for Biological Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bellary Road, Bangalore 560065, India
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15
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Hasenjager MJ, Hoppitt W, Leadbeater E. Network-based diffusion analysis reveals context-specific dominance of dance communication in foraging honeybees. Nat Commun 2020; 11:625. [PMID: 32005817 PMCID: PMC6994492 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-14410-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/04/2019] [Accepted: 12/19/2019] [Indexed: 12/03/2022] Open
Abstract
The honeybee (Apis mellifera) dance communication system is a marvel of collective behaviour, but the added value it brings to colony foraging efficiency is poorly understood. In temperate environments, preventing communication of foraging locations rarely decreases colony food intake, potentially because simultaneous transmission of olfactory information also plays a major role in foraging. Here, we employ social network analyses that quantify information flow across multiple temporally varying networks (each representing a different interaction type) to evaluate the relative contributions of dance communication and hive-based olfactory information transfer to honeybee recruitment events. We show that virtually all successful recruits to novel locations rely upon dance information rather than olfactory cues that could otherwise guide them to the same resource. Conversely, during reactivation to known sites, dances are relatively less important, as foragers are primarily guided by olfactory information. By disentangling the contributions of multiple information networks, the contexts in which dance communication truly matters amid a complex system full of redundancy can now be identified. Honeybees have a sophisticated system to communicate foraging locations through a “dance”, but they also share food-related olfactory cues. Here, Hasenjager and colleagues use social network analysis to disentangle how foraging information is transmitted through these systems in different contexts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matthew J Hasenjager
- Department of Biological Sciences, Royal Holloway University of London, Egham, TW20 0EX, UK.
| | - William Hoppitt
- Department of Biological Sciences, Royal Holloway University of London, Egham, TW20 0EX, UK
| | - Ellouise Leadbeater
- Department of Biological Sciences, Royal Holloway University of London, Egham, TW20 0EX, UK
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16
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Bidari S, Peleg O, Kilpatrick ZP. Social inhibition maintains adaptivity and consensus of honeybees foraging in dynamic environments. ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE 2019; 6:191681. [PMID: 31903216 PMCID: PMC6936270 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.191681] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/24/2019] [Accepted: 11/13/2019] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
To effectively forage in natural environments, organisms must adapt to changes in the quality and yield of food sources across multiple timescales. Individuals foraging in groups act based on both their private observations and the opinions of their neighbours. How do these information sources interact in changing environments? We address this problem in the context of honeybee colonies whose inhibitory social interactions promote adaptivity and consensus needed for effective foraging. Individual and social interactions within a mathematical model of collective decisions shape the nutrition yield of a group foraging from feeders with temporally switching quality. Social interactions improve foraging from a single feeder if temporal switching is fast or feeder quality is low. When the colony chooses from multiple feeders, the most beneficial form of social interaction is direct switching, whereby bees flip the opinion of nest-mates foraging at lower-yielding feeders. Model linearization shows that effective social interactions increase the fraction of the colony at the correct feeder (consensus) and the rate at which bees reach that feeder (adaptivity). Our mathematical framework allows us to compare a suite of social inhibition mechanisms, suggesting experimental protocols for revealing effective colony foraging strategies in dynamic environments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Subekshya Bidari
- Department of Applied Mathematics, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309, USA
| | - Orit Peleg
- Department of Computer Science, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309, USA
- BioFrontiers Institute, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309, USA
- Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM 87501, USA
| | - Zachary P. Kilpatrick
- Department of Applied Mathematics, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309, USA
- Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora, CO 80045, USA
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17
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Neuroethology of the Waggle Dance: How Followers Interact with the Waggle Dancer and Detect Spatial Information. INSECTS 2019; 10:insects10100336. [PMID: 31614450 PMCID: PMC6835826 DOI: 10.3390/insects10100336] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/01/2019] [Revised: 09/29/2019] [Accepted: 10/06/2019] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Since the honeybee possesses eusociality, advanced learning, memory ability, and information sharing through the use of various pheromones and sophisticated symbol communication (i.e., the "waggle dance"), this remarkable social animal has been one of the model symbolic animals for biological studies, animal ecology, ethology, and neuroethology. Karl von Frisch discovered the meanings of the waggle dance and called the communication a "dance language." Subsequent to this discovery, it has been extensively studied how effectively recruits translate the code in the dance to reach the advertised destination and how the waggle dance information conflicts with the information based on their own foraging experience. The dance followers, mostly foragers, detect and interact with the waggle dancer, and are finally recruited to the food source. In this review, we summarize the current state of knowledge on the neural processing underlying this fascinating behavior.
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18
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Nürnberger F, Keller A, Härtel S, Steffan‐Dewenter I. Honey bee waggle dance communication increases diversity of pollen diets in intensively managed agricultural landscapes. Mol Ecol 2019; 28:3602-3611. [DOI: 10.1111/mec.15156] [Citation(s) in RCA: 32] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/19/2019] [Revised: 06/04/2019] [Accepted: 06/13/2019] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Fabian Nürnberger
- Department of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology, Biocenter University of Würzburg Würzburg Germany
- Thünen Institute of Biodiversity Braunschweig Germany
| | - Alexander Keller
- Department of Bioinformatics and Center for Computational and Theoretical Biology, Biocenter University of Würzburg Würzburg Germany
| | - Stephan Härtel
- Department of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology, Biocenter University of Würzburg Würzburg Germany
| | - Ingolf Steffan‐Dewenter
- Department of Animal Ecology and Tropical Biology, Biocenter University of Würzburg Würzburg Germany
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19
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Little CM, Chapman TW, Hillier NK. Considerations for Insect Learning in Integrated Pest Management. JOURNAL OF INSECT SCIENCE (ONLINE) 2019; 19:6. [PMID: 31313814 PMCID: PMC6635889 DOI: 10.1093/jisesa/iez064] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/22/2019] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
The past 100 yr have seen dramatic philosophical shifts in our approach to controlling or managing pest species. The introduction of integrated pest management in the 1970s resulted in the incorporation of biological and behavioral approaches to preserve ecosystems and reduce reliance on synthetic chemical pesticides. Increased understanding of the local ecosystem, including its structure and the biology of its species, can improve efficacy of integrated pest management strategies. Pest management strategies incorporating insect learning paradigms to control insect pests or to use insects to control other pests can mediate risk to nontarget insects, including pollinators. Although our understanding of insect learning is in its early stages, efforts to integrate insect learning into pest management strategies have been promising. Due to considerable differences in cognitive abilities among insect species, a case-by-case assessment is needed for each potential application of insect learning within a pest management strategy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Catherine M Little
- Department of Biology, Acadia University, Wolfville, NS, Canada
- Department of Biology, Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador, St. John’s, NL, Canada
| | - Thomas W Chapman
- Department of Biology, Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador, St. John’s, NL, Canada
| | - N Kirk Hillier
- Department of Biology, Acadia University, Wolfville, NS, Canada
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20
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Grüter C, Czaczkes TJ. Communication in social insects and how it is shaped by individual experience. Anim Behav 2019. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2019.01.027] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
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21
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Honeybee Communication: There’s More on the Dancefloor. Curr Biol 2019; 29:R285-R287. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2019.03.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
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