Trophallaxis within the dancing context: a behavioral and thermographic analysis in honeybees (Apis mellifera)

Free access article

Issue		Apidologie Volume 36, Number 1, January-March 2005


Page(s)		43 - 47
DOI		10.1051/apido:2004069
Published online		31 January 2005

Apidologie 36 (2005) 43-47
DOI: 10.1051/apido:2004069

Trophallaxis within the dancing context: a behavioral and thermographic analysis in honeybees (Apis mellifera)

Walter M. Farina^{a, b} and Alejandro J. Wainselboim^a

^a Grupo de Estudios de Insectos Sociales, IFIBYNE-CONICET, Departamento de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Celular, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Pabellón II, Ciudad Universitaria (C1428EHA), Buenos Aires, Argentina
^b Theodor-Boveri-Institut, Lehrstuhl für Verhaltensphysiologie und Soziobiologie der Universität Würzburg, Am Hubland, 97074, Würzburg, Germany

(Received 30 March 2004; Revised 10 June 2004; Accepted 2 August 2004; Published online: 31 January 2005)

Abstract - Honeybee workers that follow a dancing bee within the hive may contact its mouthparts to receive a food sample. It is currently unknown which proportion of begging bees actually receive food samples via trophallaxis from a dancer. We combined behavioral and thermographic recordings to analyze trophallactic behavior considering the informational context in which these interactions occurred. Dance followers engaged in shorter oral contacts and achieved a lower proportion of effective receptions (26%) than non-followers (58%). These results show that oral contacts often occur between dancers and followers, but their brief duration suggests that followers may just probe the incoming nectar. However, short contacts might allow unemployed nectar foragers either to taste or smell (or both) the solution exposed between the dancer's mandibles, which may contribute to the acquisition of information involved in the decision to visit that food source.

Key words: Apis mellifera / honeybee / trophallaxis / dance / thermography

Corresponding author: Walter M. Farina walter@fbmc.fcen.uba.ar

© INRA, EDP Sciences, DIB, AGIB 2005

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.