Task Partitioning in Insect Societies. II. Use of Queueing Delay Information in Recruitment

The collection and handling of colony resources such as food, water, and nest-construction material is often divided into subtasks in which the material is passed from one worker to another. This is known as task partitioning. If tasks are partitioned with direct transfer of material between foragers and receivers, queueing delays can occur as individuals search or wait for a transfer partner. Changes in environmental conditions and relative number of foragers and receivers affect these delays as well as colony ergonomic efficiency. These delays are used in recruitment in both honeybees and Polybia wasps. This study investigates the distribution of queueing delays and the information content and quality of those delays using a stochastic-simulation model. Information quality increases with colony size. When the relative proportions of foragers and receivers are suboptimal, the group in excess has better information. Individuals can increase information quality of delays by two mechanisms: averaging over consecutive trips and averaging over multiple transfers within a trip where direct transfer occurs. We suggest that multiple transfer occurs in the honeybee in order to improve information quality.

Task Partitioning in Insect Societies. I. Effect of Colony Size on Queueing Delay and Colony Ergonomic Efficiency

The collection and handling of colony resources such as food, water, and nest construction material is often divided into subtasks in which the material is passed from one worker to another. This is known as task partitioning. When material is transferred directly from one individual to another, queueing delays frequently occur because individuals must sometimes wait for a transfer partner. A stochastic simulation model was written to study the effect of colony size on these delays. Queueing delay decreases roughly exponentially with colony size because stochastic fluctuations in the arrival of individuals are lower in larger colonies. These results support empirical studies of Polybia occidentalis and other theoretical studies of honeybees. The effect of the relative number of individuals in the two subtask groups was also studied. There is a unique optimal ratio of the number of workers associated with each of the subtasks that simultaneously minimizes mean queueing delay and maximizes colony nectar-processing rate. Deviations from this optimal ratio, for example, as a result of forager mortality or changes in nectar productivity that affect foraging trip duration, increase mean queueing delays greatly, especially in smaller colonies.