Abstract
Nectar foraging in honey bees is regulated by several communication signals that are performed mainly by foragers. One of these signals is the tremble dance, which is consistently performed by foragers from a rich food source which, upon return to the hive, experience a long delay before unloading their nectar to a nectar receiver. Although tremble dancing has been studied extensively using artificial nectar sources, its occurrence and context in a more natural setting remain unknown. Therefore, this study tests the sufficiency of the current explanations for tremble dancing by free-foraging honey bees. The main finding is that only about half of the observations of tremble dancing, referred to as delay-type tremble dancing, are a result of difficulty in finding a nectar receiver. In the remaining observations, tremble dancing was initiated immediately upon entering the hive, referred to as non-delay-type tremble dancing. Non-delay tremble dancing was associated with first foraging successes, both in a forager's career and in a single day. More than 75% of tremble dancing was associated with good foraging conditions, as indicated by the dancer continuing to forage after dancing. However, at least some of the other cases were associated with deteriorated foraging conditions, such as the end of the day, after which foraging was discontinued. No common context could be identified that explains all cases of tremble dancing or the subset of non-delay-type tremble dancing. This study shows that the current explanations for the cause of the tremble dance are insufficient to explain all tremble dancing in honey bees that forage at natural food sources.
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Acknowledgements
Thanks go to Tom Seeley for being a generous host and an invaluable source of advice, and to Peter Matisson, Chris Hood, Ethan Ebner, Judith Slaa, and Mark Laidre for allowing me to stretch my legs and enjoy the sunshine for some hours each day. Tom Seeley, David Tarpy, and Judith Slaa made valuable suggestions that improved the manuscript. N.W.O., the Netherlands foundation for scientific research, supported this research financially through a fellowship in their TALENT-program. The study complies with the current laws of the United States of America.
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Biesmeijer, J.C. The occurrence and context of tremble dancing in free-foraging honey bees (Apis mellifera). Behav Ecol Sociobiol 53, 411–416 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-003-0597-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-003-0597-0