Honey bees mark artificial flowers with scents that
advertise about the previous history of the flower to
subsequent foragers. Unrewarding flowers are marked with a
scent, after a single visit, that makes the flower less
attractive to subsequent foragers. Previously rewarding
flowers are initially less attractive than unvisited
flowers but become more and more attractive with each
rewarding visit. Flowers that have rewarded bees four
times are more attractive than unvisited flowers. This
attractant is applied by the bees in response to the
presence of nectar and is not, as has been suggested by
other researchers, inadvertently applied to anything on
which the bee lands.
Similar scent-markings are applied to a real flower,
Lotus corniculatus. One visit was enough to make a flower
less attractive to subsequent foragers but flowers that
consistently offered high amounts of nectar became more
attractive than unvisited flowers. Repellents may be used
by bees to avoid revisiting recently emptied flowers while
attractants may be applied to flowers within a patch that
consistently offer high rewards.
The possible selective pressures responsible for the
evolution of scent-marking was investigated by doing an
energetic analysis. The presence of scent-markings in a
patch results in a 33% increase, over an unmarked patch, in
the amount of sugar obtained per time.
The attractive scent-marking was extracted from a glass
flower and maintained its biological activity when applied
to a clean glass flower. The extract was chemically
analyzed using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Four
chemicals were identified; none of the chemicals has
previously been found in honey bees. Mandibular glands
were analyzed as a possible source of the attractant.
Although none of the components was found in the gland
extracts, two previously unidentified chemicals were found. / Graduation date: 1994
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ORGSU/oai:ir.library.oregonstate.edu:1957/35698 |
| Date | 23 July 1993 |
| Creators | Wetherwax, Peter B. |
| Contributors | Burgett, D. M. |
| Source Sets | Oregon State University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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