Abstract
When forager honeybees (Apis mellifera) return to the hive after a successful foraging trip, they unload the collected liquid to recipient hive mates through mouth-to-mouth contacts (trophallaxis). The speed at which the liquid is transferred (unloading rate) from donor to recipient is related to the profitability of the recently visited food source. Two main characteristics that define this profitability are the flow of solution delivered by the feeder and the time invested by the forager at the source (visit time). To investigate the effect of visit time on trophallactic behaviour, donor foragers were trained to a rate feeder that could deliver different flows of solution. We dissociated visit time and flow of solution by introducing pauses in the solution's deliverance at different moments of the foraging visit. We analysed whether timing of the non-deliverance period within the visit is important for the forager's assessment of resource profitability. During the subsequent trophallactic encounter with a hive mate, unloading rate was related to the total time invested by the forager at the food source only if the ingestion process had already been started. These results together with previous ones suggest that foragers integrate an overall flow rate of solution of the feeder throughout the entire foraging visit.
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Acknowledgements
This study was supported by funds from a PWA-Program (DAAD, Germany, and Fundación Antorchas, Argentina), and was performed during a visit by A.J.W. to the University of Würzburg, Würzburg (Germany). Additional financial support was provided by ANPCYT (PICT 98-03103) and by a grant from CONICET (Argentine Research Council). It was also partially supported by the German Research Council (SFB 554/TPC2). The present study complies with the Principles of Animal Care, publication No. 86-23, revised 1985 of the National Institute of Health and the current laws of the country in which the experiments were performed.
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Wainselboim, A.J., Roces, F. & Farina, W.M. Assessment of food source profitability in honeybees (Apis mellifera): how does disturbance of foraging activity affect trophallactic behaviour?. J Comp Physiol A 189, 39–45 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-002-0373-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-002-0373-z