Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Collective decision making in the red dwarf honeybee Apis florea: do the bees simply follow the flowers?

  • Research Article
  • Published:
Insectes Sociaux Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Most studies on collective decision making in honeybees have been performed on the cavity-nesting Western honeybee, Apis mellifera. In more recent years, the open-nesting red dwarf honeybee Apis florea has been developed as a model organism of collective decision making in the context of nest-site selection. These studies have shown that the specifics of the species’ nest-site requirements affect collective decision making. In particular, when potential nesting sites are abundant, as is the case in A. florea, the process of collective decision making can be simplified. Here, we ask if A. florea simply follows the availability of floral resources in their environment when deciding on an area to move into. We determined the locations danced for by three colonies the day before, of and after reproductive swarming. Our results suggest that colonies of A. florea indeed track the availability of forage in their environment and that swarms move in the general direction of forage rather than towards a specific nest site.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Beekman M, Fathke RL, Seeley TD (2006) How does an informed minority of scouts guide a honey bee swarm as it flies to its new home? Anim Behav 71:161–171

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bonabeau E, Theraulaz G, Deneubourg J-L, Aron S, Camazine S (1997) Self-organization in social insects. Trends Ecol Evol 12:188–193

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bonabeau E, Theraulaz G, Deneubourg JL, Franks NR, Rafelsberger O, Joly JL, Blanco S (1998) A model for the emergence of pillars, walls and royal chambers in termite nests. Phil Trans R Soc Lond B 353:1561–1576

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brito RM, Schaerf TM, Myerscough MR, Heard TA, Oldroyd BP (2012) Brood comb construction by the stingless bees Tetragonula hockingsi and Tetragonula carbonaria. Swarm Intell. doi:10.1007/s11721-012-0068-1

    Google Scholar 

  • Cabanes G, van Wilgenburg E, Beekman M, Latty T (2015) Ants build transportation networks that optimise cost and efficiency at the expense of robustness. Behav Ecol 26:223–231

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Camazine S, Visscher PK, Finley J, Vetter RS (1999) House-hunting by honey bee swarms: collective decisions and individual behaviors. Insectes Soc 46:348–362

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Camazine S, Deneubourg JL, Franks NR, Sneyd J, Theraulaz G, Bonabeau E (2001) Self-organization in biological systems. Princeton University, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Couzin ID, Krause J, Franks NR, Levin SA (2005) Effective leadership and decision making in animal groups on the move. Nature 433:513–516

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Deneubourg J-L, Franks NR (1995) Collective control without explicit coding: the case of communal nest excavation. J Insect Behav 8(4):417–432

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Diwold K, Schaerf TM, Myerscough MR, Middendorf M, Beekman M (2011) Deciding on the wing: in-flight decision making and search space sampling in the red dwarf honeybee Apis florea. Swarm Intell 5:121–141

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dyer FC, Seeley TD (1991) Dance dialects and foraging range in three Asian honey bee species. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 28:227–233

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dyer FC, Seeley TD (1994) Colony migration in the tropical honey bee Apis dorsata F. Insectes Soc 41:129–140

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fisher NI (1993) Statistical analysis of circular data. Cambridge University, Cambridge

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Franks NR, Deneubourg J-L (1997) Self-organizing nest construction in ants: individual worker behaviour and the nest’s dynamics. Anim Behav 54:779–796

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gordon DM (2014) The ecology of collective behavior. PLoS Biol 12:e1001805

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Karsai I, Penzes Z (1993) Comb building in social wasps: self-organization and stigmergic script. J Theor Biol 161:505–525

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Klein BA, Klein A, Wray MK, Mueller U, Seeley TD (2010) Sleep deprivation impairs precision of waggle dance signaling in honey bees. Proc Nat Acad Sci 107:22705–22709

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Koeniger N, Koeniger G (1980) Observations and experiments on migration and dance communication of Apis dorsata in Sri Lanka. J Api Res 19:21–34

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Koeniger N, Koeniger G, Punchihewa RWK, Fabritius M, Fabritius M (1982) Observations and experiments on the dance communication in Apis florea in Sri Lanka. J Api Res 21:45–52

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Latty TM, Beekman M (2013) Keeping track of changes—the performance of ant colonies in dynamic environments. Anim Behav 85:637–643

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Latty T, Duncan M, Beekman M (2009) High bee traffic disrupts transfer of directional information in flying honey bee swarms. Anim Behav 78:117–121

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Latty T, Holmes MJ, Makinson JC, Beekman M (2017) Argentine ants (Linepithema humile) use adaptable transportation networks to track changes in resource quality. J Exp Biol 220:686–694

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lindauer M (1955) Schwarmbienen auf Wohnungssuche. Z vergl Physiol 37:263–324

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lindauer M (1956) Über die verständigung bei Indischen Bienen. Z vergl Physiol 38:521–557

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lo N, Gloag RS, Anderson DL, Oldroyd BP (2010) A molecular phylogeny of the genus Apis suggests that the Giant honey bee of the Philippines, A. breviligula Maa, and the Plains honey bee of southern India, A. indica Fabricius, are valid species. Syst Ent 35:226–233

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Makinson JC, Oldroyd BP, Schaerf TM, Wattanachaiyingchareon W, Beekman M (2011) Moving home: nest site selection in the Red Dwarf honeybee (Apis florea). Behav Ecol Sociobiol 65:945–958

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Makinson JC, Schaerf TM, Rattanawannee A, Oldroyd BP, Beekman M (2014) Consensus building in giant Asian honeybee, Apis dorsata, swarms on the move. Anim Behav 93:191–199

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Makinson JC, Schaerf TM, Rattanawannee A, Oldroyd BP, Beekman M (2016) How does a swarm of the giant Asian honeybee Apis dorsata reach consensus? A study of the individual behaviour of scout bees. Insectes Soc 63:395–406

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nazzi F (2016) The hexagonal shape of the honeycomb cells depends on the construction behavior of bees. Sci Rep 6:28341

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Neumann P, Koeniger N, Koeniger G, Tingek S, Kryger P, Moritz RFA (2000) Home-site fidelity in migratory honeybees. Nature 406:474–475

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Oldroyd BP, Wongsiri S (2006) Asian honey bees. Biology, conservation and human interactions. Harvard University, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Oldroyd BP, Gloag RS, Even N, Wattanachaiyingcharoen W, Beekman M (2008) Nest-site selection in the open-nesting honey bee Apis florea. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 62:1643–1653

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Paar J, Oldroyd BP, Kastberger G (2000) Giant honeybees return to their nest sites. Nature 406:475

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pratt SC (2005) Behavioral mechanisms of collective nest-site choice by the ant Temnothorax curvispinosus. Insectes Soc 52:383–392

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ruttner F (1988) Biogeography and taxonomy of honey bees. Springer, Berlin

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Schaerf TM, Makinson JC, Myerscough MR, Beekman M (2011) Inaccurate and unverified information in decision making: a model for the nest site selection process of Apis florea. Anim Behav 82:995–1013

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schaerf TM, Makinson JC, Myerscough MR, Beekman M (2013) Do small swarms have an advantage when house hunting? The effect of swarm size on nest-site selection by Apis mellifera. J R Soc Interface 10:20130533

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Schneider SS, McNally LC (1994) Waggle dance behavior associated with seasonal absconding in colonies of the African honey bee Apis mellifera scutellata. Insectes Soc 41:115–127

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schultz KM, Passino KM, Seeley TD (2008) The mechanism of flight guidance in honeybee swarms: subtle guides or streaker bees? J Exp Biol 211:3287–3295

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Seeley TD (1995) The wisdom of the hive. Harvard University, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Seeley TD (2003) Consensus building during nest-site selection in honey bee swarms: the expiration of dissent. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 53:417–424

    Google Scholar 

  • Seeley TD (2010) Honeybee democracy. Princeton University, Princeton

    Google Scholar 

  • Seeley TD, Buhrman SC (1999) Group decision making in swarms of honeybees. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 45:19–31

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Seeley TD, Buhrman SC (2001) Nest-site selection in honey bees: how well do swarms implement the “best-of-N” decision rule? Behav Ecol Sociobiol 49:416–427

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Seeley TD, Visscher PK (2003) Choosing a home: how the scouts in a honey bee swarm perceive the completion of their group decision making. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 54:511–520

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Seeley TD, Visscher PK (2004a) Group decision making in nest-site selection by honey bees. Apidologie 35:101–116

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Seeley TD, Visscher PK (2004b) Quorum sensing during nest-site selection by honeybee swarms. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 56:594–601

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Seeley TD, Morse RA, Visscher PK (1979) The natural history of the flight of honey bee swarms. Psyche 86:103–113

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Seeley TD, Camazine S, Sneyd J (1991) Collective decision-making in honey bees: how colonies choose among nectar sources. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 28:277–290

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Seeley TD, Kleinhenz M, Bujok B, Tautz J (2003) Thorough warm-up before take-off in honey bee swarms. Naturwissensch 90:256–260

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Seeley TD, Visscher PK, Schlegel T, Hogan PM, Franks NR, Marshall JAR (2012) Stop signals provide cross inhibition in collective decision making by honeybee swarms. Science 335:108–111

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Villa JD (2004) Swarming behavior of honey bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae) in southeastern Louisiana. Ann Entom Soc Am 97:111–116

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Visscher PK (2007) Group decision making in nest-site selection among social insects. Ann Rev Entomol 52:255–275

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank the Australian-Asia Endeavour award (to JCM) and the Australian Research Council (MB) for funding. We further thank Prof. Siriwat Wongsiri and Dr. Ratna Thapa for providing office space at Mae Fah Luang University, and Mr. Lumphoon Supanyo for his assistance in locating Apis florea colonies. Data have been uploaded onto Dryad: http://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.3j2n8.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Behaviour and Genetics of Social Insects Lab, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, 2006, Australia

    J. C. Makinson, T. M. Schaerf, N. Wagner, B. P. Oldroyd & M. Beekman

  2. Department of Biological and Experimental Psychology, School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Road, London, E1 4NS, UK

    J. C. Makinson

  3. School of Science and Technology, University of New England, Armidale, NSW, 2351, Australia

    T. M. Schaerf

Authors
  1. J. C. Makinson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. T. M. Schaerf
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. N. Wagner
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. B. P. Oldroyd
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. M. Beekman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to M. Beekman.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary material 1 (DOCX 3642 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Makinson, J.C., Schaerf, T.M., Wagner, N. et al. Collective decision making in the red dwarf honeybee Apis florea: do the bees simply follow the flowers?. Insect. Soc. 64, 557–566 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00040-017-0577-4

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00040-017-0577-4

Keywords

Search

Navigation