Behavioural features of a periodic form of massed flight activity in the giant honeybee Apis dorsata

Abstract

Summary — A periodic form of massed flight behaviour in Apis dorsata was studied by video recording and image analysis. Two to three times a day the nest turns from the quiescent state into a high level of commotion for about 5 min. The vertical body orientations of the bees in the curtain then become more and more 'disordered'. In one nest, the total percentage of bees which flew off was less than 20% and the maximum number of hovering bees at a moment was 2-3% of the bee colony. Half of the curtain bees in the surface layer changed their position. The median moving index was below 0.3 mm/s in the quiescent condition and it rose up to 1.0 mm/s during massed flight activity. Our observations indicate that this kind of massed flight is quite different from the great defecation activities reported previously. Although there are diverse forms of massed flight activities in A dorsata, we found that this form of massed flight actitivity causes the periodical rearrangement of the roofing layer of curtain. On a Banyan tree we counted more than 100 nests of A dorsata and observed that nests of different areas of the tree did not supply bees or mass activity simultaneously.Apis dorsata / massed flight activity / orientation flight / image analysis / India

Social waves in giant honeybees (Apis dorsata) elicit nest vibrations

“…Motion activity at the nest surface was low in quiescent phases (Figs. 4, 5 and 6), but rose significantly during arousal in general, such as during mass flight activity (Kastberger et al 1996) with diffuse, unsynchronized locomotion, or in shimmering activity, in which the abdomens predominantly of surface bees display coordinated, repetitive and, therefore, portioned motions of patterns over time (Kastberger et al 2011a, b; Fig. 4b).…”

“…5c) refers to a period of mass flight activity in which the colony turns into a general state of arousal (Kastberger et al 1996). Here, locomotor behaviour at the nest surface is combined with heavy flight activity, whereby bees start from the outer layers of the bee curtain and return to the nest some minutes later.…”

“…Visual cues trigger and flexibly adjust the Mexican wave-like shimmering process (Kastberger et al 2010, 2011a, 2013; Schmelzer and Kastberger 2009). Nasonov scenting (Kastberger et al 1996) modulates the coherence and strength of the shimmering process. Mechanical traits, synchronised and cascading as displayed by the waves in the visual domain, are produced by the abdomen-lifting actions (Kastberger et al 2011a, b) of bees primarily in the surface layer.…”

The predator-prey interaction between blue-bearded bee eaters (Nyctyornis athertoni Jardine and Selby 1830) and giant honeybees (Apis dorsata Fabricius 1798)

“…In particular, the behaviour of nest two in scenario I (Fig. 2) gives here a strong evidence that the release of defence forces could be triggered by alarm pheromone [3,4,6,13]. The bees on the surface of both nests (one, two) must have seen the approaching bird in a similar way and could have released defence forces at the same time and in similar strength.…”

“…The colony's readiness for mass flight [6,7] and mass defence (Kastberger, unpublished data) is determined by the respective diurnal changes in the exposure of its various parts (such as the mouth zone [14], the more quiescent parts, the more sunny or the more shaded nest sides) to temperature, light, wind or rain, which causes an obvious asymmetry in the nest regarding the mobilisation of defence forces. This may explain the results of scenario I: this side of nest two which faced the predator and responded with a release of a small defence force, was the shaded one.…”