Sucrose responsiveness and behavioral plasticity in honey bees (Apis mellifera)

Free access article

Issue		Apidologie Volume 35, Number 2, March-April 2004 Information flow and group decision making in social bees


Page(s)		133 - 142
DOI		10.1051/apido:2004001

Apidologie 35 (2004) 133-142
DOI: 10.1051/apido:2004001

Sucrose responsiveness and behavioral plasticity in honey bees (Apis mellifera)

Ricarda Scheiner^a, Robert E. Page^b and Joachim Erber^a

^a Institut für Ökologie, Technische Universität Berlin, Franklinstr. 28/29, 10587 Berlin, Germany
^b Department of Entomology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA

(Received 8 August 2003; revised 15 November 2003; accepted 15 December 2003)

Abstract - This review will focus on the relationships between sensory responses of bees and behavior. Sensory responsiveness constrains individual foraging plasticity and skews collective foraging decisions of colonies. We will concentrate on pollen, nectar, and water foraging behavior and will show that differences in the sucrose responsiveness of bees correlate with different behavioral roles, which supports the response threshold model of division of labor. We will also show how a colony's "allocation" of foragers into foraging roles results from individual differences in responsiveness to task-related stimuli and discuss hypotheses on the behavioral relevance of these differences.

Key words: behavioral plasticity / sucrose responsiveness / foraging behavior / collective decision / response threshold model

Corresponding author: Ricarda Scheiner Ricarda.Scheiner-Pietsch@mailbox.TU-Berlin.de

© INRA, EDP Sciences, DIB, AGIB 2004

What is OpenURL?

The OpenURL standard is a protocol for transmission of metadata describing the resource that you wish to access. An OpenURL link contains article metadata and directs it to the OpenURL server of your choice. The OpenURL server can provide access to the resource and also offer complementary services (specific search engine, export of references...). The OpenURL link can be generated by different means.

If your librarian has set up your subscription with an OpenURL resolver, OpenURL links appear automatically on the abstract pages.
You can define your own OpenURL resolver with your EDPS Account. In this case your choice will be given priority over that of your library.
You can use an add-on for your browser (Firefox or I.E.) to display OpenURL links on a page (see http://www.openly.com/openurlref/). You should disable this module if you wish to use the OpenURL server that you or your library have defined.