Abstract
Why do some social insects have sophisticated recruitment systems, while other species do not communicate about food source locations at all? To answer this question, it is necessary to identify the social or ecological factors that make recruitment adaptive and thus likely to evolve. We developed an individual-based model of honey bee foraging to quantify the benefits of recruitment under different spatial distributions of nondepleting resource patches and with different colony sizes. Benefits of recruitment were strongly dependent on resource patch quality, density, and variability. Communication was especially beneficial if patches were poor, few, and variable. A sensitivity analysis of the model showed that under conditions of high resource density recruitment could even become detrimental, especially if foraging duration was short, tendency to scout was high, or recruits needed a long time to find communicated locations. Colony size, a factor often suspected to influence recruitment evolution, had no significant effect. These results may explain the recent experimental findings that in honey bees, benefits of waggle dance recruitment seem to vary seasonally and with habitat. They may also explain why some, but not other, species of social bees have evolved a strategy to communicate food locations to nest mates.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 336-344 |
| Number of pages | 9 |
| Journal | Behavioral Ecology |
| Volume | 17 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 2006 |
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Keywords
- Apis mellifera
- Communication
- Foraging
- Individual-based model
- Social insects
- Waggle dance
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Animal Science and Zoology
- Ecology
- Behavioral Neuroscience
Cite this
Benefits of recruitment in honey bees : Effects of ecology and colony size in an individual-based model. / Dornhaus, Anna; Klügl, Franziska; Oechslein, Christoph; Puppe, Frank; Chittka, Lars.
In: Behavioral Ecology, Vol. 17, No. 3, 2006, p. 336-344.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Benefits of recruitment in honey bees
T2 - Effects of ecology and colony size in an individual-based model
AU - Dornhaus, Anna
AU - Klügl, Franziska
AU - Oechslein, Christoph
AU - Puppe, Frank
AU - Chittka, Lars
PY - 2006
Y1 - 2006
N2 - Why do some social insects have sophisticated recruitment systems, while other species do not communicate about food source locations at all? To answer this question, it is necessary to identify the social or ecological factors that make recruitment adaptive and thus likely to evolve. We developed an individual-based model of honey bee foraging to quantify the benefits of recruitment under different spatial distributions of nondepleting resource patches and with different colony sizes. Benefits of recruitment were strongly dependent on resource patch quality, density, and variability. Communication was especially beneficial if patches were poor, few, and variable. A sensitivity analysis of the model showed that under conditions of high resource density recruitment could even become detrimental, especially if foraging duration was short, tendency to scout was high, or recruits needed a long time to find communicated locations. Colony size, a factor often suspected to influence recruitment evolution, had no significant effect. These results may explain the recent experimental findings that in honey bees, benefits of waggle dance recruitment seem to vary seasonally and with habitat. They may also explain why some, but not other, species of social bees have evolved a strategy to communicate food locations to nest mates.
AB - Why do some social insects have sophisticated recruitment systems, while other species do not communicate about food source locations at all? To answer this question, it is necessary to identify the social or ecological factors that make recruitment adaptive and thus likely to evolve. We developed an individual-based model of honey bee foraging to quantify the benefits of recruitment under different spatial distributions of nondepleting resource patches and with different colony sizes. Benefits of recruitment were strongly dependent on resource patch quality, density, and variability. Communication was especially beneficial if patches were poor, few, and variable. A sensitivity analysis of the model showed that under conditions of high resource density recruitment could even become detrimental, especially if foraging duration was short, tendency to scout was high, or recruits needed a long time to find communicated locations. Colony size, a factor often suspected to influence recruitment evolution, had no significant effect. These results may explain the recent experimental findings that in honey bees, benefits of waggle dance recruitment seem to vary seasonally and with habitat. They may also explain why some, but not other, species of social bees have evolved a strategy to communicate food locations to nest mates.
KW - Apis mellifera
KW - Communication
KW - Foraging
KW - Individual-based model
KW - Social insects
KW - Waggle dance
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=33645720059&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=33645720059&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1093/beheco/arj036
DO - 10.1093/beheco/arj036
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:33645720059
VL - 17
SP - 336
EP - 344
JO - Behavioral Ecology
JF - Behavioral Ecology
SN - 1045-2249
IS - 3
ER -