Classical experiments on honey bee time-memory showed that foragers trained to collect food at a fixed time of day return the following day with remarkable time-accuracy. Previous field experiments revealed that not all foragers return to a food source on unrewarded test days. Rather, there exist 2 subgroups: “persistent” foragers reconnoiter the source; “reticent” foragers wait in the hive for confirmation of source availability. To examine how these foragers contribute to a colony’s ability to reallocate foragers across sources with rapidly changing availabilities, foragers were trained to collect sucrose during a restricted window for several days and observed over 3 days throughout which the feeder was empty. In 2 separate trials, activity monitoring revealed a high level of activity apparently directed at other food sources. This “extracurricular” activity showed extensive temporal overlap with visits to the feeder, indicating that honey bees can manage at least 2 different overlapping time memories.

Honey bee foragers form time memories that enable them to match their foraging activity to the time of day when a particular food source is most productive. Persistent foragers show food-anticipatory activity by making reconnaissance flights to the previously productive food source and may continue to inspect it for several days. In contrast, reticent foragers do not investigate the source but wait for confirmation from returning persistent foragers. To determine how persistent and reticent foragers might contribute to the colony's ability to rapidly reallocate foragers among sources, we trained foragers to collect sucrose from a feeder at a restricted time of day for several days and then observed their behavior for three consecutive days during which the feeder was empty. In two separate trials, video monitoring of the hive entrance during unrewarded test days in parallel with observing reconnaissance visits to the feeder revealed a high level of activity, in both persistent and reticent foragers, thought to be directed at other food sources. This 'extracurricular' activity showed a high degree of temporal overlap with reconnaissance visits to the feeder. In some cases, inspection flights to the unrewarded feeder were made within the same trip to an extracurricular source, indicating that honey bees have the ability to manage at least two different time memories despite coincidence with respect to time of day. The results have major implications for understanding flower fidelity throughout the day, flower constancy within individual foraging excursions, and the sophisticated cognitive management of spatiotemporal memories in honey bees.

Honey bee foragers form time memories that enable them to match their foraging activity to the time of day when a particular food source is most productive. Persistent foragers show food-anticipatory activity by making reconnaissance flights to the previously productive food source and may continue to inspect it for several days. In contrast, reticent foragers do not investigate the source but wait for confirmation from returning persistent foragers. To determine how persistent and reticent foragers might contribute to the colony's ability to rapidly reallocate foragers among sources, we trained foragers to collect sucrose from a feeder at a restricted time of day for several days and then observed their behavior for three consecutive days during which the feeder was empty. In two separate trials, video monitoring of the hive entrance during unrewarded test days in parallel with observing reconnaissance visits to the feeder revealed a high level of activity, in both persistent and reticent foragers, thought to be directed at other food sources. This 'extracurricular' activity showed a high degree of temporal overlap with reconnaissance visits to the feeder. In some cases, inspection flights to the unrewarded feeder were made within the same trip to an extracurricular source, indicating that honey bees have the ability to manage at least two different time memories despite coincidence with respect to time of day. The results have major implications for understanding flower fidelity throughout the day, flower constancy within individual foraging excursions, and the sophisticated cognitive management of spatiotemporal memories in honey bees.