Modulatory negative feedback communication in honey bees

The honey bees possess a remarkable communication system, the waggle dance, which allows a colony to rapidly recruit nestmates to a specific location. The waggle dance provides strong positive feedback because recruits may also return to the nest after investigating the indicated resource and perform their own waggle dances. This can lead to a rapid increase in the number of dancers. However, not all participants in this system have identical experiences and information. Foragers may encounter competitors and engage in fights or escape from an unsuccessful predation attempt. They can be bitten or be exposed to a semiochemical, alarm pheromone. This forager can then modulate the positive feedback provided by the waggle dance by supplying a negative feedback signal, the “stop signal.” Stop signals are targeted at waggle dancers visiting the same resource and reduce waggle dancing. Interestingly, this targeting is based upon the odor of the resource. Stop signal receivers can return to the resource, re-evaluate it for themselves, and then return to the nest where they produce more stop signals if they were attacked at the resource. Thus, individuals with more current “news” can inform waggle dancing bees whose information is less current or who have had a different experience. Stop signals are modulatory and appear to be consistently present at low levels. Elevation in stop signaling (multiple signals from multiple signalers) above threshold levels appears key for changing colony decision making and may improve information reliability.