FOOD-EXCHANGE BY FORAGERS IN THE HIVE - A MEANS OF COMMUNICATION AMONG HONEY-BEES

Dancing and trophallactic behaviour of forager honey bees, Apis mellif era ligustica Spinola, that returned from an automatic feeder with a r egulated how rate of 50% weight-to-weight sucrose solution (range: 0.7 6-7.65 mu l/min) were studied in an observation hive. Behavioural para meters of dancing, such as probability, duration and dance tempo, incr eased with the nectar how rate, though with very different response cu rves among bees. For trophallaxis (i.e. mouth-to-mouth exchange of foo d), the frequency of giving-contacts and the transfer rate of the nect ar increased with the nectar flow rate. After unloading, foragers ofte n approached other nest mates and begged for food before returning to the food source. This behaviour was less frequent at higher nectar flo w rates. These results show that the profitability of a food source in terms of nectar flow rate had a quantitative representation in the hi ve through quantitative changes in trophallactic and dancing behaviour . The role of trophallaxis as a communication channel during recruitme nt is discussed.