Contrasting responses of bumble bees to feeding conspecifics on their familiar and unfamiliar flowers
Contrasting responses of bumble bees to feeding conspecifics on their familiar and unfamiliar flowers
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DOI：
10.1098/rspb.2007.0860
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发表时间：
2007-11-07
影响因子：
4.7
通讯作者：
Toquenaga, Yukihiko
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Kawaguchi, Lina G.;Ohashi, Kazuharu;Toquenaga, Yukihiko
利用熟悉的食物的动物通常会通过避开气味、较少奖励的区域或视觉接触来避免与其他动物的时空聚集，从而在资源缓慢补充时最大限度地减少竞争或干扰。然而，当动物寻找或评估可用的食物来源时，它们可能会通过跟随食物地点的其他动物来降低采样成本。因此，动物可能会根据对觅食情况的熟悉程度来调整对他人的反应。在这里，我们进行了实地实验来测试采集花蜜的大黄蜂是否会做出这种调整。我们允许自由觅食的蜜蜂在两个花序之间进行选择，一个花序被同种蜜蜂占据，另一个花序未被占据。当蜜蜂看到熟悉类型的花朵时，它们会避开被占用的花序。相比之下，当花型不熟悉时，蜜蜂就会访问被占用的花序。据我们所知，这是第一份表明动物根据对食物来源的熟悉程度来调整对喂养同种动物的反应的报告。这种行为灵活性应该允许觅食者有效地探索和利用他们的环境。
Animals exploiting their familiar food items often avoid spatio-temporal aggregation with others by avoiding scents, less rewarding areas or visual contacts, thereby minimizing competition or interference when resources are replenished slowly in patches. When animals are searching or assessing available food sources, however, they may benefit from reducing sampling costs by following others at food sites. Therefore, animals may adjust their responses to others depending on their familiarity with foraging situations. Here, we conducted field experiments to test whether nectar-collecting bumble bees make this adjustment. We allowed free-foraging bees to choose between two inflorescences, one occupied by a conspecific bee and another unoccupied. When bees were presented with flowers of a familiar type, they avoided occupied inflorescences. In contrast, bees visited an occupied inflorescence when the flower type was unfamiliar. To our knowledge, this is the first report suggesting that animals adjust their responses to feeding conspecifics depending on their familiarity with food sources. Such behavioural flexibilities should allow foragers to both explore and exploit their environments efficiently.