Abstract
It is known that honeybees use vibrational communication pathways to transfer information. One honeybee signal that has been previously investigated is the short vibrational pulse named the ‘stop signal’, because its inhibitory effect is generally the most accepted interpretation. The present study demonstrates long term (over 9 months) automated in-situ non-invasive monitoring of a honeybee vibrational pulse with the same characteristics of what has previously been described as a stop signal using ultra-sensitive accelerometers embedded in the honeycomb located at the heart of honeybee colonies. We show that the signal is very common and highly repeatable, occurring mainly at night with a distinct decrease in instances towards midday, and that it can be elicited en masse from bees following the gentle shaking or knocking of their hive with distinct evidence of habituation. The results of our study suggest that this vibrational pulse is generated under many different circumstances, thereby unifying previous publication’s conflicting definitions, and we demonstrate that this pulse can be generated in response to a surprise stimulus. This work suggests that, using an artificial stimulus and monitoring the changes in the features of this signal could provide a sensitive tool to assess colony status.
Highlights
Honeybee (Apis mellifera) colonies kept for commercial purposes are usually housed in beehives, with population sizes exceeding 40,000 individuals depending on the season
Our study focuses on the long term monitoring and the resulting statistics of a type of honeybee vibrational pulse recently named in the literature as the ‘stop signal’, which is one of three established types of worker piping
We cannot show the entire collection of pulses that have been detected, our limited tests strongly support the fact that the vast majority of pulses that we have analysed are exclusively “whooping signals” as understood by experts
Summary
Honeybee (Apis mellifera) colonies kept for commercial purposes are usually housed in beehives, with population sizes exceeding 40,000 individuals depending on the season. During the spring/ summer active season there is a higher volume of workers assigned to gathering resources, such as pollen and nectar, to sustain them over the inactive winter months when the population size reduces [1]. Within the context of food processing, worker bees have numerous day to day tasks distributed based on the age of the bee [3]. Older bees (around 30% of the colony) leave the hive to forage whilst the youngest of the workers stay in the hive, processing the pollen and nectar as it arrives (reviewed by Robinson [4]). Honeybees will naturally seek out dark areas to build their nests, such as tree cavities [5], and within
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
