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https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/18272
Title: | Moving home: nest-site selection in the Red Dwarf honeybee ('Apis florea') | Contributor(s): | Makinson, James C (author); Oldroyd, Benjamin P (author); Schaerf, Timothy (author)![]() |
Publication Date: | 2011 | DOI: | 10.1007/s00265-010-1095-9 | Handle Link: | https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/18272 | Abstract: | The Red Dwarf honeybee ('Apis florea') is one of two basal species in the genus 'Apis. A. florea' differs from the well-studied Western Hive bee ('Apis mellifera') in that it nests in the open rather than in cavities. This fundamental difference in nesting biology is likely to have implications for nest-site selection, the process by which a reproductive swarm selects a new site to live in. In 'A. mellifera', workers show a series of characteristic behaviors that allow the swarm to select the best nest site possible. Here, we describe the behavior of individual 'A. florea' workers during the process of nest-site selection and show that it differs from that seen in 'A. mellifera'. We analyzed a total of 1,459 waggle dances performed by 197 scouts in five separate swarms. Our results suggest that two fundamental aspects of the behavior of 'A. mellifera' scouts -the process of dance decay and the process of repeated nest site evaluation- do not occur in 'A. florea'. We also found that the piping signal used by 'A. mellifera' scouts to signal that a quorum has been reached at the chosen site, is performed by both dancing and non-dancing bees in 'A. florea'. Thus, the piping signal appears to serve a different purpose in 'A. florea'. Our results illustrate how differences in nesting biology affect the behavior of individual bees during the nest-site selection process. | Publication Type: | Journal Article | Grant Details: | ARC/DP0984731 | Source of Publication: | Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 65(5), p. 945-958 | Publisher: | Springer | Place of Publication: | Germany | ISSN: | 1432-0762 0340-5443 |
Fields of Research (FoR) 2008: | 060201 Behavioural Ecology 010202 Biological Mathematics 060801 Animal Behaviour |
Fields of Research (FoR) 2020: | 310301 Behavioural ecology 310901 Animal behaviour 490102 Biological mathematics |
Socio-Economic Objective (SEO) 2008: | 970101 Expanding Knowledge in the Mathematical Sciences 970106 Expanding Knowledge in the Biological Sciences |
Socio-Economic Objective (SEO) 2020: | 280118 Expanding knowledge in the mathematical sciences 280102 Expanding knowledge in the biological sciences |
Peer Reviewed: | Yes | HERDC Category Description: | C1 Refereed Article in a Scholarly Journal |
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Appears in Collections: | Journal Article |
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