Analysis of group visual behavior of apis mellifera honey bees during foraging/
Mazokhin Porshnyakov, G.A.; Semenova, S.A.; Lyubarskii, G.Yu
Zhurnal Obshchei Biologii 45(1): 79-88
1984
ISSN/ISBN: 0044-4596
Accession: 004739763
No gregarious behavior, initial tendency to land at a place where a bee is already sitting, was found in foragering bees, A. mellifera (mixed race), which have visually chosen one of similar cups with bait. In the foragers, a positive conditional reaction rapidly arises, during 3-4 tests on average, to other bees (or their models) as indicators of attractive places. In the 1st case the tropic interaction of bees is based on the visual contact and an antiaffiliaion reflex, and results in the disperse strategy of foraging. In the 2nd case the aggregation strategy of foraging forms on the basis for training. No imitation teaching appears to take place in bees: a bee spectator does not memorize the place or other visual features of the bait which a bee performer has left in sight of the former (the influence of 1 to 9 performers was tested). Only in 1 of many diverse experiments was the copying of behavior noted: the color preference of the bait in the spectators changed somewhat under the influence of the performers.