Experiments were performed to determine the influence of the honey bee time-memory on a forager bee's sensitivity to recruitment. Two groups of foragers from one colony were trained to separate food stations at the same restricted time of day for several consecutive days. Feeding then was canceled at one station but continued for four more days at the other. Bees with more days of training at a non-productive source were significantly less likely than foragers with less training to be recruited to an alternative food source presented at the same time of day. Furthermore, the ability of a forager to be recruited recovered after several days, but this recovery period was longer for bees with greater experience. These findings demonstrate a long-term influence of time-memory on subsequent foraging behavior, in contrast to currently accepted models for the allocation and re-allocation of honey bee foragers to food patches in the environment.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ETSU/oai:dc.etsu.edu:etd-3406 |
| Date | 05 May 2007 |
| Creators | Otto, Matthew Walter |
| Publisher | Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University |
| Source Sets | East Tennessee State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Electronic Theses and Dissertations |
| Rights | Copyright by the authors. |
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