Abstract
Trophallaxis among adult worker honeybees is the transfer of liquid food by mouth from one individual to another. Within the colony, nectar foragers perform offering contacts (as food-donors) to transfer the contents of their crops to recipient nest-mates and, in addition, they also perform begging contacts (as food-receivers). The biological relevance of these last interactions remains unknown. Previous evidence suggests that begging may be involved in the exchange of information on food resources that occurs naturally between employed foragers and nest-mates. This work was aimed to reveal possible connections between the information obtained while foraging and the begging behavior displayed inside the nest. Experiments were intended to (1) analyze whether chemosensory information obtained while foraging, i.e., odors and sucrose concentrations, affects begging behavior, and (2) determine whether resource uncertainty enhances begging contacts. Results showed that: (1) most begging contacts lasted less than 1 s, a duration which only allows receiving food samples from nest-mates; (2) the diversity of odors and sucrose concentrations at the feeding place enhances the occurrence of begging contacts; and (3) an increased resource uncertainty enhances the forager begging behavior. In addition, results suggest that foragers may direct their begging contacts frequently to other employed nectar foragers.
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Abbreviations
- RF:
-
rate feeder
- T:
-
treatment
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Acknowledgements
We are deeply indebted to Prof. Dr. J. A. Núñez for his permanent encouragement, fruitful discussions and valuable comments. Prof. Núñez also designed the 3-feeder patch employed during the experiments. We thank Koos Biesmeijer (Utrecht, The Netherlands), Giovanni Galizia (Berlin, Germany), and Martin Giurfa (Toulouse, France) for suggestions and valuable comments on early versions of the manuscript. We also thank M. Gil and J. Goyret for advisements on statistics. R.D.M. gratefully acknowledges helpful assistance with the experiments by Maria Ariadna Szapiro. This study was partially supported by funds from ANPCYT (PICT 98-03103) and from the University of Buenos Aires (JX53) to W.M.F., and from CONICET to both authors. The present experiments comply with the Principles of animal care (publication No. 86-23, -revised 1985) of the National Institute of Health and the corresponding national current laws.
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Dedicated to Prof. Dr. Josué A. Núñez on the occasion of his 78th birthday.
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De Marco, R.J., Farina, W.M. Trophallaxis in forager honeybees (Apis mellifera): resource uncertainty enhances begging contacts?. J Comp Physiol A 189, 125–134 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-002-0382-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-002-0382-y