Trophallactic chains in honeybees: a quantitative approach of the nectar circulation amongst workers

Joaquín Goyret , Walter M. Farina

In honeybees, the rate at which a nectar forager unloads its crop to a receiver is positively correlated with the reward conditions the forager has recently experienced outside the hive. Food-receiver bees often share the nectar they have received with hive mates. A quantitative analysis of two consecutive trophallactic events was done in experimental arenas to determine if the food-transfer behavior of a food-receiver as she distributes nectar to her hive mates is affected by her prior trophallactic experience with a donor forager. We found that the rate at which a receiver unloads nectar to another receiver is positively correlated with the rate at which she received it from a food donor, suggesting that it is possible to propagate, through individual-to-individual interactions, information about quantitative aspects of the liquid food circulating among worker honeybees.

Mots clés: Apis mellifera; trophallaxis; unloading rate; communication

Domaines: Zoologie des invertébrés; Biodiversité; Ecologie, Environnement; Science des productions animales

Joaquín Goyret, Walter M. Farina. Trophallactic chains in honeybees: a quantitative approach of the nectar circulation amongst workers. Apidologie, 2005, 36 (4), pp.595-600. ⟨hal-00892173⟩