Impact of the quality of food sources on the wing beating of honey bee dancers

Sylwia Łopuch,Adam Tofilski

doi:10.1007/s13592-020-00748-3

Abstract

The waggle dances of honey bees provide information about the location of food sources and their quality. This study aimed to investigate how the quality of food sources affects different components of the dance. For the first time, we analysed in detail both the waggle phase and the return phase of the dance using a high-speed camera. The frequency of wing beats in the waggle phase and the frequency of wing-beating pulses in the return phase were significantly higher in foragers collecting more concentrated honey compared with foragers collecting less-concentrated honey, whereas the duration of the return phase was significantly shorter. Discriminant function analysis allowed correct classification of 88.1% of dances as referring to 60 or 40% honey concentration. In conclusion, information about the quality of food sources can be contained both in the waggle phase and in the return phase; however, the return phase appears to transfer more information about the quality of food sources.

Highlights

The communication of honey bee (Apis mellifera ) workers by means of waggle dances has been studied for many decades
Correlation matrices of components of dances performed by honey bee foragers collecting 40 or 60% honey solution were significantly correlated with each other (Mantel test: r = 0.059, p < 0.001)
The results presented here indicate that the waggle dances of honey bee foragers depended markedly on concentration of honey solution they collected

Summary

Introduction

The communication of honey bee (Apis mellifera ) workers by means of waggle dances has been studied for many decades. Workers dance on the comb in the nest to inform their nestmates about the location of a useful resource, including a source of food or a new nest site (von Frisch 1967). Honey bee dance consists of many circuits which, in turn, consist of a waggle phase and a return phase (Figure 1). It was reported that honey bee dances provide information about the quality of resources (von Frisch 1967). More profitable food sources elicit more vigorous and longer-lasting dances (Boch 1956; Esch 1961; von Frisch 1967; Seeley et al 1991, 2000), which may attract more dance followers.

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