Collective mechanical adaptation of honeybee swarms
Collective mechanical adaptation of honeybee swarms
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DOI：
10.1038/s41567-018-0262-1
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发表时间：
2018-12-01
期刊：
影响因子：
19.6
通讯作者：
Mahadevan, L.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Peleg, O.;Peters, J. M.;Mahadevan, L.
蜜蜂群形成大型拥挤的树挂集群完全由蜜蜂相互连接。这些结构如何在动态机械力的影响下保持不为人知。为了解决这个问题，我们创建了悬垂集群，并使它们受到不同方向，振幅，频率和持续时间的动态负载。我们发现，水平振动的集群通过扩散形成更宽，更平的圆锥体来适应，当卸载时恢复其原始形状。测量星团对脉冲摆动激发的响应表明，扁平的锥体比细长的锥体变形更小，松弛更快（也就是说，它们更稳定）。基于粒子的模拟被动装配提出了一个行为假设：个别蜜蜂响应应变的局部变化，通过移动应变梯度，这是定性一致的，我们的观察个别蜜蜂运动动态加载。模拟还表明，垂直振动不会导致显着的差异应变，因此没有形状适应，我们证实了实验。总之，我们的研究结果突出了超级有机体结构如何通过主动改变其形态来响应动态负载，以增加个体的平均机械负担为代价来提高集群的集体稳定性。
Honeybee Apis mellifera swarms form large congested tree-hanging clusters made solely of bees attached to each other'. How these structures are maintained under the influence of dynamic mechanical forcing is unknown. To address this, we created pendant clusters and subject them to dynamic loads of varying orientation, amplitude, frequency and duration. We find that horizontally shaken clusters adapt by spreading out to form wider, flatter cones that recover their original shape when unloaded. Measuring the response of a cluster to an impulsive pendular excitation shows that flattened cones deform less and relax faster than the elongated ones (that is, they are more stable). Particle-based simulations of a passive assemblage suggest a behavioural hypothesis: individual bees respond to local variations in strain by moving up the strain gradient, which is qualitatively consistent with our observations of individual bee movement during dynamic loading. The simulations also suggest that vertical shaking will not lead to significant differential strains and thus no shape adaptation, which we confirmed experimentally. Together, our findings highlight how a super-organismal structure responds to dynamic loading by actively changing its morphology to improve the collective stability of the cluster at the expense of increasing the average mechanical burden of an individual.