Social modulation of individual differences in dance communication in honey bees

Abstract

Division of labour is a hallmark of eusocial insect colonies, with different groups of workers engaged in different tasks at the same time. Foraging is a task done by older workers in honey bee colonies. Foragers use the waggle dance behaviour to inform and recruit nest mates to food sources in the environment. The recruitment process incorporates information about the food reward, the colony food stores and the environmental food availability and plays a major role in ensuring efficient exploitation of the food sources available to the colony. However, the role that individual foragers play in driving recruitment is largely unexplored. We observed the dance activity of individual foragers from the same foraging group and showed that there are consistent inter-individual differences within a foraging group leading to a division of labour in the recruitment activity. Next, we studied the effect of changing social interactions on these individual differences. Removing foragers from the group led to an increase in the dance activity of the group of remaining foragers. This was mainly driven by an increase in the dance activity of certain individuals within the foraging groups. In contrast, allowing recruits to join the foraging group had a strong negative effect on the dance activity of all the individual foragers. Our study shows that there is a fine scale division of labour in the recruitment activity within foraging groups and that this is further regulated by changing social interactions. Thus, a complex interplay between individual differences and social interactions drive recruitment activity in honey bees.

Inter‐individual variation in honey bee dance intensity correlates with expression of the foraging gene

“…[9][10][11] However, the role that consistent differences play in the division of labour in social insects is much less understood. 9,[12][13][14][15][16] In honey bees, the social recruitment behaviour of individual foragers plays a vital role in ensuring the survival of the colony. [17][18][19][20][21] Round and waggle dances performed by foragers returning from a profitable food source contain navigational and motivational information regarding the food source.…”

Similarities in the behaviour of dance followers among honey bee species suggest a conserved mechanism of dance communication

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17Group living organisms rely on intra-group communication to adjust individual and 18 collective behavioural decisions. Complex communication systems are predominantly 19 multimodal and combine modulatory and information bearing signals. The honey bee 20 waggle dance, one of the most elaborate form of communication in invertebrates, 21 stimulates nestmates to search for food and communicates symbolic information 22 about the location of the food source.

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“…In addition, interactions with other foragers provide information 75 about predation and overcrowding at the food source [23][24][25][26]. An individual forager's 76 dance activity is modulated by the perceived reward value of the food source along 77 with information from these interactions [19]. This in turn drives recruitment to each 78 food source proportional to its relative reward value, which leads to an efficient 79 distribution of the colony's foraging force [27].…”

“…and intensity of dance behaviour [15,[17][18][19]. Interactions with nestmates in the hive 73 inform nectar foragers about the colony food stores and the nectar influx into the 74 colony [18,[20][21][22].…”

“…The cues and signals that differ between the species 39 may be involved in attracting the followers towards the dancer in the different nest 40 environments. 41 42 Keywords 43 Apis florea, Apis cerana, Apis dorsata, waggle dance evolution, spatial information 44 transfer, tactile hypothesis 45 Cues and signals from the environment and nestmates can modulate the probability 72and intensity of dance behaviour [15,[17][18][19]. Interactions with nestmates in the hive 73 inform nectar foragers about the colony food stores and the nectar influx into the 74 colony [18,[20][21][22].…”