How individual nutritional intake target influences food sharing and sociality

The geometric framework approach in nutritional ecology postulates how animals attempt to balance the consumption of different nutrients rather than simply maximizing energetic gains. The intake target, with respect to each nutrient, maximizes fitness in a specific dimension and any difference between individuals in intake targets therefore represents alternative behavioral and fitness maximization strategies. Since nutritional interactions are a central component of all social groups, we investigate if and how inter-individual variation in nutritional intake targets influence the cooperation and conflict among group members. Using the honeybee colony as an experimental model we first quantify the intake targets of individual honeybees using a Café Assay and then quantify the amounts of food transferred by these bees to colony members. This research suggests how nutritional constraints could have significantly contributed to the evolution of sociality.