BEE COMMUNICATION CAMERON MITCHELL STUDENT LEARNING OBJECTIVES Students

BEE COMMUNICATION CAMERON MITCHELL

STUDENT LEARNING OBJECTIVES Students will learn how Honeybees communicate

2 FORMS OF COMMUNICATIONS ü Body Movement üPheromone Control Bees are able to communicate Foraging v Presence v Direction v Distance v Nutritional strength of source

BODY MOVEMENT 2 Types of Dances: • Round Dance • Waggle Dance

ROUND DANCE • The bee moves in one or more circles clockwise then counterclockwise and so on. • Scent cues brought back by the scout then stimulate forager recruits to leave the hive and look in the local vicinity for similar smell. • The Round Dance is normally conducted when the target is within 250’ from the hive.

WAGGLE DANCE • A distinctive dance in a figure 8 pattern. • A semicircle clockwise is followed by a straight line in which the bee vigorously vibrates its abdomen from side to side, then another semicircle counter-clockwise and another straight-line waggle.

WAGGLE DANCE • Waggle Dance informs other workers to: - a new forage source - which direction to fly how far to fly - what to expect when they get there

DANCE FLOOR • Both dances are carried out on the comb and immediately attract the attention of other bees, which huddle close to monitor the scout’s movements in the darkness.

PHEROMONE’S • Queen Mandibular Pheromone (QMP) • Brood Pheromones • Alarm Pheromones • Recruitment Pheromones

PHEROMONE • Honey bees make more than 50 different pheromones, enabling a huge range of messages to be conveyed.

PHEROMONE • Pheromones can elicit different responses according to the age of the bee, prompting workers to change jobs. • Pheromones, for example, stimulate young nurse bees to produce brood food, but causes older foraging bees to collect more pollen.

PHEROMONE • Queen Mandibular Pheromone (QMP) • Brood Pheromones • Alarm Pheromones • Recruitment Pheromones

QUEEN MANDIBULAR PHEROMONE (QMP) • Arguably the pheromone with the greatest number of applications. QMP affects: ü Hive Maintenance ü Swarming ü Mating ü (Non-)development of ovaries in workers ü Other elements of colony social behavior. .

QUEEN MANDIBULAR PHEROMONE (QMP) • Court bees collect QMP from the queen with their tongues, passing it from bee to bee around the hive, thereby communicating the state of the queen across the whole colony. • As the queen ages, her QMP output diminishes, and this is one of the key signals that prompt workers to raise a new queen to replace her.

BROOD PHEROMONES • There are several brood pheromones with different functions. • Brood Recognition Pheromone - allows the queen’s eggs to be distinguished from eggs laid by rogue workers, which must be removed for colony health. .

BROOD PHEROMONES • Open-brood pheromones are produced by larvae in uncapped cells and encourage nurse bees to apply a protective cap to their cells when they are ready to pupate. • Brood Pheromones also regulate the transition of workers from nursing duties to other jobs in the colony.

ALARM PHEROMONES • When an attack on the colony is perceived, guard bees release alarm pheromones to recruit more guard bees to the nest entrance and put all the workers on high alert.

ALARM PHEROMONES • Bee stings also release pheromones • Encouraging other workers to sting and guiding them to the target.

RECRUITMENT PHEROMONES • These pheromones accompany the waggle distance performance by foragers and encourage other workers to leave the hive and forage, particularly if there is a good nectar source temporarily available.

REFERENCES: • Chadwick, F. (2016). The bee book. Strand, London: Dorling Kindersley Limited. • Johnson, D. , & Johnson, S. (2019). The beginner’s guide to beekeeping  everything you need to know. Minneapolis, Mn: Voyageur Press. • Flottum, K. (2014). The backyard beekeeper’s honey handbook  a guide to creating, harvesting, and cooking with natural honeys. Beverly, Mass. : Quayside Pub. Group. • Jones, R. , & Sweeney-Lynch, S. (2011). The beekeeper’s bible  bees, honey, recipes & other home uses. New York: