Abstract
We tested the hypothesis that Apis mellifera workers exhibit plasticity in moving from fanning to guarding behavior. Bees marked when fanning are more likely to guard than fan on subsequent days, but guard to fanner reversals were common. Our findings suggest that bees can switch between these tasks, but that their bias between the two tasks changes over time, rather than a strict serial progression of worker tasks. The number of fanning workers is positively correlated with ambient temperature and negatively correlated with humidity; this conclusion gives insight into the environmental triggers for worker behavior.
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Acknowledgements
We thank the University of Colorado at Boulder for housing the bee colonies used in this study. We are also grateful to M. Ochomogo Krasnec, C. Cook, and L. Sanchez for comments on the manuscript. R.E. was supported by the U.S. Air Force Institute of Technology’s Civilian Institutions Program.
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Egley, R.L., Breed, M.D. The Fanner Honey Bee: Behavioral Variability and Environmental Cues in Workers Performing a Specialized Task. J Insect Behav 26, 238–245 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10905-012-9357-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10905-012-9357-1