Search

Honeybees use waggle dances to inform nestmates about the locations of food and nest sites. The waggle duration corresponds to the distance to a resource, while its direction with respect to the vertical axis represents the resource direction in relation to the solar azimuth. Individual waggle runs within a dance often vary in duration and direction, and follower bees use the average spatial information for foraging. Honeybees also dance prior to nest movement, wherein waggle runs have directional similarity, but vary considerably in duration. The role of these dances, called migratory dances, has been elucidated mostly using artificially generated swarms which may not accurately represent long-term changes in the colony preceding migration. We explored temporal trends in waggle dances prior to migration from undisturbed colonies of the Asian giant honeybee, Apis dorsata. In two sites in India with either a year-round or seasonal presence of colonies, we asked whether dances are a sufficient predictor of migration. One site showed increased mean and error in the duration of dances in all colonies prior to migration. All study colonies migrated and the habitat was devoid of colonies in general. The second site was different in that all colonies had similar dance durations and error over time, although only one of the colonies migrated within the study period, while the others migrated months later. Thus, though migration is preceded by longer dances with greater error, these dances do not necessarily indicate imminent migration. Importantly, our findings suggest that the migratory response likely involves an interplay of several factors (e.g., resources, colony health) that are being constantly evaluated, and colonies may either migrate or revert to a resident state. These findings are the first observations of pre-migration dances from natural, undisturbed colonies (as opposed to artificial swarms) and are of significance as A. dorsata increasingly occupies urban areas and can potentially become invasive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Migration studies include spectacular examples from vertebrates, such as birds, bats, and turtles. However, insect migration studies have lagged due to a restrictive definition of what entails migration and because of constraints in tracking insect movement. This has changed in recent times with studies on migratory butterflies, moths, and dragonflies. However, studies on collective migration by social insects such as honey bees are still largely lacking, despite their impact on ecosystem services, food security, and biodiversity. In this review, we synthesise findings from scattered studies on migration in a subset of honey bee species to better understand this phenomenon and to provide impetus for future research. As a general trend, migration in the genus Apis begins with a shift from a statary to a migratory phase within colonies, characterised by greater scout activity and consensus-building with respect to the direction of departure using migratory waggle dances. Once air-borne, the finer details of a swarm's movement are unknown for any Apis species. Swarms reportedly make multiple stops, and while temporarily existing as comb-less clusters at these sites, the decision-making process occurs repeatedly, until nest-selection dances occur and the migratory phase finally culminates. We highlight the need for studies into the drivers and mechanisms of honey bee migration, as well as the promise of initiatives such as citizen science and tools such as pollen metabarcoding in studying migration in honey bees. This is particularly needed, given that rapidly changing habitats and climate could affect honey bee migration and the pollination services they provide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Predatory social wasps (Vespidae) are opportunistic, invasive and generalist foragers which employ distinct foraging strategies to meet the nutritional needs of adults and larvae. They are agile, visual predators that can hunt on the fly, scavenge on carcasses and collect tree sap, honeydew, nectar and sugars from rotting fruits. Their diverse foraging strategies make them an excellent model system to study cognition and context specific use of sensory information. Few studies have addressed visual associative learning and olfactory preferences of predatory social wasps in the context of flower-feeding, although nectar is one of their main carbohydrate sources. A deeper understanding of their sensory ecology and learning abilities in the flower foraging context is important, as they are invasive and major predators of honeybee colonies in many parts of the world. We investigated visual associative learning and olfactory preference in the Greater banded hornet Vespa tropica. We found that V. tropica foragers readily associate colour with sugar reward and exhibit colour generalisation. They also learn to associate shapes with sugar rewards. Our results suggest that colour learning and shape discrimination might play a role in the context of flower search in V. tropica. Finally, we show that V. tropica preferred honeybee hive-related odours over a generic floral odour, indicating that the preference for hive odours could potentially help hornets home in on bee colonies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In addition to sugars, nectar contains multiple nutrient compounds in varying concentrations, yet little is known of their effect on the reward properties of nectar and the resulting implications for insect behaviour. We examined the pre-ingestive responses of honeybees to sucrose solutions containing a mix of pollen compounds, the amino acids proline or phenylalanine, or known distasteful substances, quinine and salt. We predicted that in taste and learning assays, bees would respond positively to the presence of nutrient compounds in a sucrose solution. However, bees' proboscis extension responses decreased when their antennae were stimulated with pollen- or amino acid-supplemented sucrose solutions. Compared to pure sucrose, bees exhibited worse acquisition when conditioned to an odour with pollen-supplemented sucrose as the unconditioned stimulus. Such learning impairment was also observed with quinine-containing sucrose solutions. Our results suggest that bees can use their antennae to detect pollen compounds in floral nectars. Depending on the type and concentrations of compounds present, this may result in nectar being perceived as distasteful by bees, making it less effective in reinforcing the learning of floral cues. Such reward devaluation might be adaptive in cases where plants benefit from regulating the frequency of bee visitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nat Singapore 6:153-172 The following reference had incomplete author names Lehrer M, Horridge GA, Zhang SW, Gadagkar R (1995) Shapevision in bees: innate preference for flower-like patterns. Curr Biot 5:344-350 Wen Z, Soh W, Wen R, Ngiam J (2013) Flower-visiting bees and wasps in Singapore parks (Insecta: Hymenoptera). Correction to: Insectes Soc. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00040-021-00820-w In the publication the following two references are in the text but missing from the reference list Jadhav JA, Sreedevi K, Rajendra Prasad P (2015) Insect pollinator diversity and abundance in sunflower ecosystem. [Extracted from the article]