Influence of the Odour of a Honeybee Colony's Food Stores on the Behaviour of its Foragers

Abstract

WHEN a successful honeybee forager makes a food communication dance, potential recruits learn the odour of the food source both from the odour adhering to the dancer's body and from the odour of the nectar the dancer regurgitates to them; the latter is the more important when forage is distant from the hive. Conditioned foragers can be induced to revisit their food source by being touched by, or receiving food from, a companion that has just returned from the source but not danced, although contact with a dancing bee is more effective^1,2. Bumblebees have nothing equivalent to the dance language of the honeybee, but the odour of the food stores of a Bombus lucorum colony can influence the choice of flower species visited by its foragers³, and it seemed possible that honeybee colonies might have a similar primitive form of communication.