0225 Activated by danger, a negative feedback signal counteracts the honey bee waggle dance

Sunday, December 12, 2010: 3:20 PM
Sunrise (Town and Country Hotel and Convention Center)
James C. Nieh , Division of Biological Sciences - Section of Ecology, Behavior and Evolution, University of California, La Jolla, CA
Colonial superorganisms such as honey bees rely upon network of self-organizing factors to deal with rapidly changing environments. Honey bees are well known to use signals such as the waggle dance to recruit nestmates to good food sources. This study demonstrates that danger, such as intraspecific competition at a rich food source, can lead to the production of stop signals, a vibrational signal that has previously demonstrated to reduce recruitment and waggle dancing. By sensing acquired floral odor, signalers significantly target more stop signals at nestmates that have visited the same food source. The behavior of focal foragers inside the nest before and after feeder competition was recorded. Competitors fought with resident foragers, frequently attacking by biting. Foragers that were victims of attack by competitors significantly increased stop signal production by 43 fold. Foragers that attacked competitors and those that experienced no aggression did not alter stop signal production. Signalers preferentially target nestmates visiting the same food source based upon the odor of that food source. To determine which stimuli trigger stop signals, attacks were simulated by pinching focal foragers or by applying mandibular or sting gland pheromone extracts in the absence of competitors. Exposure to pinching and sting gland extract significantly increased signal production. Mandibular gland extract had no effect. Thus, the stop signal can be produced by bees that have been attacked by competitors at a resource and are targeted to nestmate visiting the same-smelling resource, resulting in cessation of recruitment.

doi: 10.1603/ICE.2016.48749