Honey bee drones are synchronously hyperactive inside the nest

Neubauer, Louisa C; Davidson, Jacob D.; Wild, Benjamin; Dormagen, David; Landgraf, Tim; Couzin, Iain D.; Smith, Michael L.

doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2023.05.018

Cited by 5 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 73 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Following [ 15 , 28 , 49 ], we introduced barcode-tagged bees into an observation hive and tracked their behaviour continuously over an entire summer. Between 23 August and 9 September 2019, we conducted five heat stress trials.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Simulations demonstrated that this simple mechanism can effectively allocate bees to tasks that require more attention, if the bees are attracted to these tasks by stimuli [ 54 ]. To describe the response of different individuals, previous studies with social insects have employed a threshold model in which individuals in a group differ in their response threshold levels [ 16 , 49 , 56 , 57 ]. The effective individual threshold for a bee to engage in fanning behaviour has been shown to depend on social context (i.e.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

How honeybees respond to heat stress from the individual to colony level

Jhawar,

Davidson,

Weidenmüller

et al. 2023

J. R. Soc. Interface.

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A honey bee colony functions as an integrated collective, with individuals coordinating their behaviour to adapt and respond to unexpected disturbances. Nest homeostasis is critical for colony function; when ambient temperatures increase, individuals switch to thermoregulatory roles to cool the nest, such as fanning and water collection. While prior work has focused on bees engaged in specific behaviours, less is known about how responses are coordinated at the colony level, and how previous tasks predict behavioural changes during a heat stress. Using BeesBook automated tracking, we follow thousands of individuals during an experimentally induced heat stress, and analyse their behavioural changes from the individual to colony level. We show that heat stress causes an overall increase in activity levels and a spatial reorganization of bees away from the brood area. Using a generalized framework to analyse individual behaviour, we find that individuals differ in their response to heat stress, which depends on their prior behaviour and correlates with age. Examining the correlation of behavioural metrics over time suggests that heat stress perturbation does not have a long-lasting effect on an individual’s future behaviour. These results demonstrate how thousands of individuals within a colony change their behaviour to achieve a coordinated response to an environmental disturbance.

show abstract

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How honeybees respond to heat stress from the individual to colony level

Jhawar,

Davidson,

Weidenmüller

et al. 2023

J. R. Soc. Interface.

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

To house or oust: Honey bee (Apis mellifera) colonies can evaluate and evict drones of low quality

Gilchrist,

Nixon,

Shultz

et al. 2024

Behav Ecol Sociobiol

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Across the animal kingdom, males advertise their quality to potential mates. Males of low reproductive quality, such as those that are sick, may be excluded from mating. In eusocial species, there is some evidence that reproductive females gauge the quality of their mates. However, males often spend much more time with non-reproductive females when being raised or when returning from unsuccessful mating flights. Do non-reproductive workers evaluate the quality of male reproductives? Here we address this question using male honey bees (Apis mellifera), called drones, as a model. We generated immune-challenged drones by injecting them with lipopolysaccharide and tested: 1) do workers evict immune-challenged drones from their colony, 2) do cuticular hydrocarbon (CHC) profiles, body size, or mass change when drones are immune-challenged, and 3) are these changes used by workers to exclude low quality males from the colony? We found that an immune challenge causes changes in CHC profiles of drones and reduces their body mass. Workers selectively evict small and immune-challenged drones who, themselves, do not self-evict. This work demonstrates that some eusocial males undergo an additional layer of scrutiny prior to mating mediated by the non-reproductive worker caste. Significance statement Males of some species must advertise their quality to mates but, in the case of eusocial species, must they also advertise their quality to nestmates? By manipulating honey bee male quality, we found that small and immune-challenged drones are evicted from colonies overnight. Workers may not use a drone’s cuticular hydrocarbon profile to make this assessment. This is a new example of social immunity expressed against adult males and an example of worker involvement in reproductive decisions.

show abstract

Sex and caste effects on the vibrational sensitivity in honey bees (Apis mellifera)

Chehaimi,

Kirchner

2024

Apidologie

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In the darkness of their nests, most social insect species communicate relying on chemical, tactile, electrical and mechanical signals. In honeybees, vibrational signals play a role not only in worker communication but also in communication among virgin queens in the process of swarming. Whereas the sensitivity to vibrations has been well studied in worker bees, vibrational sensitivity of queens and drones has never been investigated. We therefore studied the sensitivity to vibrations comparatively in workers, virgin and laying queens and in drones, focusing on the frequency range mainly used by virgin queens (350–500 Hz). Bees were tested behaviorally for responses to pulses of substrate borne vibrations in arenas placed on vibrational exciters. Vibrational amplitudes were measured using (LDV-calibrated) accelerometers. Real stimuli and sham stimuli were presented in a pseudorandom order. The threshold was defined as the lowest tested amplitude at which significantly more behavioral reactions were shown to real stimuli than to sham stimuli. Workers and virgin queens respond to amplitudes down to 0.25 m/s2. The thresholds of laying queens are substantially higher and they respond to minimum amplitudes of 0.55 m/s2. Drones show responses to amplitudes down to 0.6 m/s2. We conclude that sex and caste have effects on vibrational sensitivity in honeybees: virgin queens are significantly more sensitive than laying queens, indicating that a high sensitivity is crucial for survival during the process of swarming; workers are likewise highly sensitive to execute efficient everyday work; drones are significantly the least sensitive.

show abstract

Honey bee drones are synchronously hyperactive inside the nest

Cited by 5 publications

References 73 publications

How honeybees respond to heat stress from the individual to colony level

How honeybees respond to heat stress from the individual to colony level

To house or oust: Honey bee (Apis mellifera) colonies can evaluate and evict drones of low quality

Sex and caste effects on the vibrational sensitivity in honey bees (Apis mellifera)

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About