Trapline foraging by bumblebees: I. Persistence of flight-path geometry
نویسنده
چکیده
By setting out arrays of potted plants of Penstemon strictus, I tested whether freely foraging bumblebee (Bombus spp.) workers would establish regular foraging routes that reflected the geometry of the array. They did, passing through an asymmetrical array in a pattern that minimized interplant flight distances. After the array was changed to a symmetrical pattern, however, the experienced bees continued to show their previous asymmetrical flight patterns. New bees without experience on the asymmetrical array showed no asymmetry on the symmetrical array. I term this persistence of flight-path geometry "trapline holdover," and discuss its implications for the study of animals' learning and foraging behavior.
منابع مشابه
Unravelling the mechanisms of trapline foraging in bees
Trapline foraging (repeated sequential visits to a series of feeding locations) is a taxonomically widespread but poorly understood behavior. Investigating these routing strategies in the field is particularly difficult, as it requires extensive tracking of animal movements to retrace their complete foraging history. In a recent study, we used harmonic radar and motion-triggered video cameras t...
متن کاملTravel optimization by foraging bumblebees through readjustments of traplines after discovery of new feeding locations.
Animals collecting resources that replenish over time often visit patches in predictable sequences called traplines. Despite the widespread nature of this strategy, we still know little about how spatial memory develops and guides individuals toward suitable routes. Here, we investigate whether flower visitation sequences by bumblebees Bombus terrestris simply reflect the order in which flowers...
متن کاملUnderstanding the Flight of the Bumblebee
Bumblebees are remarkable navigators. While their flight paths may look scattered to the casual eye, all that buzzing about is anything but random. Like the travelling salesman in the famous mathematical problem of how to take the shortest path along multiple stops, bumblebees quickly find efficient routes among flowers. And once they find a good route, they stick to it. The same goes for other...
متن کاملTrapline foraging by bumble bees: IV. Optimization of route geometry in the absence of competition
Foraging on resources that are fixed in space but that replenish over time, such as floral nectar and pollen, presents animals with the problem of selecting a foraging route. What can flower visitors such as bees do to optimize their foraging routes, that is, reduce return time or route distance? Some repeatedly visit a set of plants in a significantly predictable sequence (so-called ‘‘trapline...
متن کاملTrapline foraging by bumble bees: II. Definition and detection from sequence data
Trapline foraging—repealed sequential visits to a series of feeding locations—presents interesting problems seldom treated in foraging models. Work on traplining is hampered by the lack of statistical, operational approaches for detecting its existence and measuring its strength. We propose several statistical procedures, illustrating them with records of interplant flight sequences by bumble b...
متن کامل