Evaluating the cues that coordinate a shift towards the robbing foraging tactic in the honey bee (Apis mellifera)
Evaluating the cues that coordinate a shift towards the robbing foraging tactic in the honey bee (Apis mellifera)
复制标题
DOI：
10.1007/s00265-023-03321-x
复制
发表时间：
2023-04-01
影响因子：
2.3
通讯作者：
Rittschof，Clare C.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Napier，Taylor C.;Westwick，Rebecca R.;Rittschof，Clare C.
在蜜蜂（Apis mellifera）这样的社会物种中，觅食策略的变化需要几组专门的工人进行转换，这些工人参与收集，储存和加工食物。在食物极度短缺的情况下，蜜蜂群体可以转向一种高风险，高回报的觅食策略，称为蜂蜜抢劫，这涉及从其他殖民地窃取成熟的蜂蜜。从事蜂蜜抢劫的殖民地表现出相应的防御行为增加专业警卫蜜蜂，大概是因为引发抢劫的条件也增加了殖民地入侵的风险。以前的研究表明，抢劫觅食巢友所表现出的攻击行为调节警卫防御。在目前的研究中，我们评估了抢劫经验的哪些方面可能会改变觅食者的攻击性，进而改变守卫的防御性。我们训练殖民地访问饲养员含有生蜂蜜或蔗糖溶液，并检查是否食物类型，在饲养员的冲突经验，或其他非生物线索，反映了季节的时间最好的解释后卫防御的变化。我们发现很少有证据表明食物类型影响觅食者与警卫的互动。相反，即使考虑到季节变化的影响，喂食者的冲突也是增加攻击性互动的最佳预测因素。因此，种内冲突在抢劫过程中的食物资源可能会驱动个人觅食侵略的转变，激活后卫防御作为一个综合征的一个组成部分的殖民地水平的变化，需要适应抢劫觅食tactic.Significance statementHoney蜜蜂拥有极端的觅食策略，他们在资源稀缺的条件下雇用。这种抢蜜策略需要工蜂之间协调一致的变化，以适应增强的食物收集、加工和储存以及巢穴防御。在以前的研究中，我们发现，抢劫觅食者表现出异常高的侵略性，一旦觅食者回家，这种转变可能会引发巢友警卫更大的防御性。在这里，我们探讨了协调警卫防御努力变化的线索，发现觅食者在食物资源上的冲突是警卫防御性的一个强有力的预测因素。这些结果表明，警卫使用行为线索，从自己的觅食，以估计他们的攻击风险，并相应地增加他们的防御。
In a social species like the honey bee (Apis mellifera), changes in foraging strategy require shifts in several groups of specialized workers that are involved in collecting, storing, and processing food. In cases of extreme food shortage, honey bee colonies can switch to a high-risk, high-reward foraging tactic known as honey robbing, which involves stealing mature honey from other colonies. Colonies engaged in honey robbing show a corresponding increase in defensive behaviors displayed by specialist guard bees, presumably because the conditions that provoke robbing also increase the risk of colony invasion. Previous studies suggest aggressive behaviors displayed by robbing forager nestmates modulate guard defensiveness. In the current study, we evaluated which aspects of the robbing experience likely alter forager aggression, and in turn, guard defensiveness. We trained colonies to visit feeders containing either raw honey or a sucrose solution and examined whether food type, experience of conflict at the feeder, or other abiotic cues that reflect the time of the season best explain variation in guard defensiveness. We found little evidence that food type influences forager interactions with guards. Rather, conflict at the feeder is the best predictor of increased aggressive interactions, even when accounting for the effects of seasonal change. Thus, intraspecific conflict at the food resource during robbing may drive shifts in individual forager aggression, activating guard defensiveness as one component of a syndrome of colony-level changes required to accommodate the robbing foraging tactic.Significance statementHoney bees possess an extreme foraging tactic that they employ under conditions of resource scarcity. This tactic, honey robbing, requires coordinated changes among worker bees to accommodate enhanced food collection, processing, and storing, as well as nest defense. In a previous study, we showed that robbing foragers show unusually high aggression, and that this shift may trigger greater defensiveness from nestmate guards once foragers return home. Here, we explored the cues that coordinate the change in defensive effort from guards and find that forager conflict at the food resource is a strong predictor of guard defensiveness. These results suggest that guards use behavioral cues from their own foragers to estimate their risk of attack and increase their defensiveness accordingly.