Context affects nestmate recognition errors in honey bees and stingless bees

Abstract

SUMMARYNestmate recognition studies, where a discriminator first recognises and then behaviourally discriminates (accepts/rejects) another individual, have used a variety of methodologies and contexts. This is potentially problematic because recognition errors in discrimination behaviour are predicted to be context-dependent. Here we compare the recognition decisions (accept/reject) of discriminators in two eusocial bees, Apis mellifera and Tetragonisca angustula, under different contexts. These contexts include natural guards at the hive entrance (control); natural guards held in plastic test arenas away from the hive entrance that vary either in the presence or absence of colony odour or the presence or absence of an additional nestmate discriminator; and, for the honey bee, the inside of the nest. For both honey bee and stingless bee guards, total recognition errors of behavioural discrimination made by guards (% nestmates rejected + % non-nestmates accepted) are much lower at the colony entrance (honey bee: 30.9%; stingless bee: 33.3%) than in the test arenas (honey bee: 60-86%; stingless bee: 61-81%; P<0.001 for both). Within the test arenas, the presence of colony odour specifically reduced the total recognition errors in honey bees, although this reduction still fell short of bringing error levels down to what was found at the colony entrance. Lastly, in honey bees, the data show that the in-nest collective behavioural discrimination by ca. 30 workers that contact an intruder is insufficient to achieve error-free recognition and is not as effective as the discrimination by guards at the entrance. Overall, these data demonstrate that context is a significant factor in a discriminators' ability to make appropriate recognition decisions, and should be considered when designing recognition study methodologies.

Unnatural Contexts Cause Honey Bee Guards to Adopt Non‐Guarding Behaviours Towards Allospecifics and Conspecifics

“…Previous studies have demonstrated that physical context plays an important role in recognition for both honey bees ( Apis mellifera ) and stingless bees ( Tetragonisca angustula ), where the likelihood that a guard makes a recognition error towards a conspecific non‐nestmate, that is by not rejecting it, increases with the unnaturalness of the context in which the guard is placed, even though fewer rejection errors towards nestmates were also made (Couvillon et al. ). However, it may be that the common experimental methodology of dichotomously recording a guard's behaviour as either accept or reject is not well suited for unnatural contexts because guards may adopt unnatural behaviours such as avoiding or ignoring arthropods they would normally inspect.…”

Nestmate Recognition in Eusocial Insects: The Honeybee as a Model System

“…Depending on ecological circumstances and evolutionary history the guard response may vary to minimize the cost of errors (Reeve 1989). See below and work by Couvillon et al (2009Couvillon et al ( , 2012Couvillon et al ( , 2013a for more discussion of the implications of recognition errors group contains many compounds, thus setting the stage for meeting the criterion of hypervariability necessary for making fine distinctions among kin. Cuticular hydrocarbon mixes typically include alkanes, methyl-branched alkanes, and alkenes.…”

“…The wax odor is a result of glandular products of the bees incorporated into the comb during its construction (Buchwald et al 2009). Couvillon et al (2009Couvillon et al ( , 2012Couvillon et al ( , 2013a have focused on recognition errors made by guard bees (Fig. 9.3).…”

Social Recognition in Invertebrates

“…Depending on ecological circumstances and evolutionary history the guard response may vary to minimize the cost of errors . See below and work by Couvillon et al (2009Couvillon et al ( , 2012Couvillon et al ( , 2013a for more discussion of the implications of recognition errors group contains many compounds, thus setting the stage for meeting the criterion of hypervariability necessary for making fine distinctions among kin. Cuticular hydrocarbon mixes typically include alkanes, methyl-branched alkanes, and alkenes.…”

“…The wax odor is a result of glandular products of the bees incorporated into the comb during its construction ). Couvillon et al (2009Couvillon et al ( , 2012Couvillon et al ( , 2013a have focused on recognition errors made by guard bees (Fig. 9.3).…”