Trophallactic chains in honeybees: A quantitative approach of the nectar circulation amongst workers

Abstract

In honeybees, the rate at which a nectar forager unloads its crop to a receiver is positively correlated with the reward conditions the forager has recently experienced outside the hive. Food-receiver bees often share the nectar they have received with hive mates. A quantitative analysis of two consecutive trophallactic events was done in experimental arenas to determine if the food-transfer behavior of a food-receiver as she distributes nectar to her hive mates is affected by her prior trophallactic experience with a donor forager. We found that the rate at which a receiver unloads nectar to another receiver is positively correlated with the rate at which she received it from a food donor, suggesting that it is possible to propagate, through individual-to-individual interactions, information about quantitative aspects of the liquid food circulating among worker honeybees. © INRA/DIB-AGIB/ EDP Sciences, 2005.