1. ‘Special agents’ trigger social waves in giant honeybees (Apis dorsata)
- Author
-
Gerald Kastberger and Evelyn Schmelzer
- Subjects
0106 biological sciences ,Wasps ,Video Recording ,Documentation ,Trigger cohorts ,Motor Activity ,Giant honeybee ,010603 evolutionary biology ,01 natural sciences ,Nesting Behavior ,Predation ,Honey Bees ,Nest ,Shimmering ,Animals ,Motor activity ,Natural enemies ,Social Behavior ,Defence waving ,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics ,Video recording ,Original Paper ,biology ,Ecology ,fungi ,Apis dorsata ,General Medicine ,Bees ,biology.organism_classification ,010602 entomology ,Arousal ,‘Special-agents’ hypothesis - Abstract
Giant honeybees (Apis dorsata) nest in the open and have therefore evolved a variety of defence strategies. Against predatory wasps, they produce highly coordinated Mexican wavelike cascades termed ‘shimmering’, whereby hundreds of bees flip their abdomens upwards. Although it is well known that shimmering commences at distinct spots on the nest surface, it is still unclear how shimmering is generated. In this study, colonies were exposed to living tethered wasps that were moved in front of the experimental nest. Temporal and spatial patterns of shimmering were investigated in and after the presence of the wasp. The numbers and locations of bees that participated in the shimmering were assessed, and those bees that triggered the waves were identified. The findings reveal that the position of identified trigger cohorts did not reflect the experimental path of the tethered wasp. Instead, the trigger centres were primarily arranged in the close periphery of the mouth zone of the nest, around those parts where the main locomotory activity occurs. This favours the ‘special-agents’ hypothesis that suggest that groups of specialized bees initiate the shimmering. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00114-009-0605-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
- Published
- 2009