Public use of olfactory information associated with predation in two species of social bees

Abstract

Recent studies have documented that social bees can use heterospeci!c information to!nd or avoid food resources, but little is known about whether bees gain information from heterospeci!cs about predation risk. We report the!rst detailed!eld tests in bees of hetero- and conspeci!c avoidance of olfactory information associated with predation. We determined whetherApis melliferaandBombus impatiens would respond either to hetero- or conspeci!c haemolymph as an indication of a predation event, or to sting gland contents, which provide an alarm pheromone in honeybees and in many other social Hymenoptera.Bombus impatiensavoided their own haemolymph andA. melliferahaemolymph in foraging arena choice experiments.Bombus impatiensdid not respond toA. melliferaalarm pheromone or to the odour of conspeci!c sting gland. In!eld experiments,A. melliferaavoided their own haemolymph and their own sting alarm pheromone, but did not avoid the haemolymph or sting gland contents of B. impatiensor native bumblebees (Bombus vosnesenskii) that regularly foraged around their hives. One factor behind the response ofB. impatiensto heterospeci!c cues of predation may be its habit of solitary foraging, which may lead to more interactions with heterospeci!cs than would social foraging in which bees recruit nestmates to resources. !2012 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.