title: Hydrocarbons emitted by waggle-dancing honey bees increase forager recruitment by stimulating dancing.
abstract: Hydrocarbons emitted by waggle-dancing honey bees are known to reactivate experienced foragers to visit known food sources. This study investigates whether these hydrocarbons also increase waggle-dance recruitment by observing recruitment and dancing behavior when the dance compounds are introduced into the hive. If the hydrocarbons emitted by waggle-dancing bees affect the recruitment of foragers to a food source, then the number of recruits arriving at a food source should be greater after introduction of dance compounds versus a pure-solvent control. This prediction was supported by the results of experiments in which recruits were captured at a feeder following introduction of dance-compounds into a hive. This study also tested two nonexclusive behavioral mechanism(s) by which the compounds might stimulate recruitment; 1) increased recruitment could occur by means of increasing the recruitment effectiveness of each dance and/or 2) increased recruitment could occur by increasing the intensity of waggle-dancing. These hypotheses were tested by examining video records of the dancing and recruitment behavior of individually marked bees following dance-compound introduction. Comparisons of numbers of dance followers and numbers of recruits per dance and waggle run showed no significant differences between dance-compound and solvent-control introduction, thus providing no support for the first hypothesis. Comparison of the number of waggle-dance bouts and the number of waggle runs revealed significantly more dancing during morning dance-compound introduction than morning solvent-control introduction, supporting the second hypothesis. These results suggest that the waggle-dance hydrocarbons play an important role in honey bee foraging recruitment by stimulating foragers to perform waggle dances following periods of inactivity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, William Paterson University, Wayne, New Jersey, United States of America.
authors.forename: David C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Gilley
mesh_terms: D000819:Animal Communication; D000818:Animals; D001516:Bees / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D006838:Hydrocarbons / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000494:pharmacology; D009068:Movement; D010675:Pheromones / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000494:pharmacology
chemical_list: D006838:Hydrocarbons; D010675:Pheromones