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Bumblebee Communication
Bumblebees (''Bombus'' spp.), like the honeybee (''Apis'' spp.) collect nectar and pollen from flowers and store them for food. Many individuals must be recruited to forage for food to provide for the hive. Some bee species have highly developed ways of communicating with each other about the location and quality of food resources ranging from physical to chemical displays. While honey bees are known for their specialized dances, such as the waggle dance which recruit other bees to the precise location of the food source,Winston ML, 1987. The biology of the honey bee. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. bumblebees are not capable of transmitting this type of detailed information. Instead, the nest serves as a hub where bees receive information about the foraging bouts of her conspecifics. Differences between the communication methods of honeybees and bumblebees are mainly due to differences in colony size and nest structure. Bumblebees are distinct from honeybees because they lac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bumblebees
A bumblebee (or bumble bee, bumble-bee, or humble-bee) is any of over 250 species in the genus ''Bombus'', part of Apidae, one of the bee families. This genus is the only extant group in the tribe Bombini, though a few extinct related genera (e.g., ''Calyptapis'') are known from fossils. They are found primarily in higher altitudes or latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere, although they are also found in South America, where a few lowland tropical species have been identified. European bumblebees have also been introduced to New Zealand and Tasmania. Female bumblebees can sting repeatedly, but generally ignore humans and other animals. Most bumblebees are social insects that form colonies with a single queen. The colonies are smaller than those of honey bees, growing to as few as 50 individuals in a nest. Cuckoo bumblebees are brood parasitic and do not make nests or form colonies; their queens aggressively invade the nests of other bumblebee species, kill the resident que ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Honeybee
A honey bee (also spelled honeybee) is a eusocial flying insect within the genus ''Apis'' of the bee clade, all native to Afro-Eurasia. After bees spread naturally throughout Africa and Eurasia, humans became responsible for the current cosmopolitan distribution of honey bees, introducing multiple subspecies into South America (early 16th century), North America (early 17th century), and Australia (early 19th century). Honey bees are known for their construction of perennial colonial nests from wax, the large size of their colonies, and surplus production and storage of honey, distinguishing their hives as a prized foraging target of many animals, including honey badgers, bears and human hunter-gatherers. Only eight surviving species of honey bee are recognized, with a total of 43 subspecies, though historically 7 to 11 species are recognized. Honey bees represent only a small fraction of the roughly 20,000 known species of bees. The best known honey bee is the wester ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Waggle Dance
Waggle dance is a term used in beekeeping and ethology for a particular figure-eight dance of the honey bee. By performing this dance, successful foragers can share information about the direction and distance to patches of flowers yielding nectar and pollen, to water sources, or to new nest-site locations with other members of the colony. The waggle dance and the round dance are two forms of dance behaviour that are part of a continuous transition. As the distance between the resource and the hive increases, the round dance transforms into variations of a transitional dance, which, when communicating resources at even greater distances, becomes the waggle dance. In the case of '' Apis mellifera ligustica'', the round dance is performed until the resource is about 10 metres away from the hive, transitional dances are performed when the resource is at a distance of 20 to 30 metres away from the hive, and finally, when it is located at distances greater than 40 metres from the h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trophallaxis
Trophallaxis () is the transfer of food or other fluids among members of a community through mouth-to-mouth ( stomodeal) or anus-to-mouth ( proctodeal) feeding. Along with nutrients, trophallaxis can involve the transfer of molecules such as pheromones, organisms such as symbionts, and information to serve as a form of communication. Trophallaxis is used by some birds, gray wolves, vampire bats, and is most highly developed in social insects such as ants, wasps, bees, and termites. Etymology Tropho- (prefix or suffix) is derived from the Greek trophé, meaning 'nourishment'. The Greek 'allaxis' means 'exchange'. The word was introduced by the entomologist William Morton Wheeler in 1918. Evolutionary significance Trophallaxis was used in the past to support theories on the origin of sociality in insects. The Swiss psychologist and entomologist Auguste Forel also believed that food sharing was key to ant society and he used an illustration of it as the frontispiece for his ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bee Learning And Communication
Bee learning and communication includes cognitive and sensory processes in all kinds of bees, that is the insects in the seven families making up the clade Anthophila. Some species have been studied more extensively than others, in particular ''Apis mellifera'', or European honey bee. Color learning has also been studied in bumblebees. Honey bees are sensitive to odors (including pheromones), tastes, and colors, including ultraviolet. They can demonstrate capabilities such as color discrimination through classical and operant conditioning and retain this information for several days at least; they communicate the location and nature of sources of food; they adjust their foraging to the times at which food is available; they may even form cognitive maps of their surroundings. They also communicate with each other by means of a "waggle dance" and in other ways. Learning Honey bees are adept at associative learning, and many of the phenomena of operant and classical conditionin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bumblebee Nest
A bumblebee (or bumble bee, bumble-bee, or humble-bee) is any of over 250 species in the genus ''Bombus'', part of Apidae, one of the bee families. This genus is the only extant group in the tribe Bombini, though a few extinct related genera (e.g., ''Calyptapis'') are known from fossils. They are found primarily in higher altitudes or latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere, although they are also found in South America, where a few lowland tropical species have been identified. European bumblebees have also been introduced to New Zealand and Tasmania. Female bumblebees can sting repeatedly, but generally ignore humans and other animals. Most bumblebees are social insects that form colonies with a single queen. The colonies are smaller than those of honey bees, growing to as few as 50 individuals in a nest. Cuckoo bumblebees are brood parasitic and do not make nests or form colonies; their queens aggressively invade the nests of other bumblebee species, kill the resident queen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lars Chittka
Lars Chittka, FLS, FRES, FSB (born April 1963) is a German zoologist, ethologist and ecologist distinguished for his work on the evolution of sensory systems and cognition, using insect-flower interactions as a model. Life and career Born in Germany, Chittka studied Biology at the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen and the Free University of Berlin. He obtained his PhD degree under the supervision of Randolf Menzel at the Free University of Berlin. Chittka is a recipient of the Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award and an Advanced Fellowship from the European Research Council (ERC). He is also member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, an elected Fellow of the Linnean Society (FLS), the Royal Entomological Society (FRES) as well as the Royal Society of Biology (FSB). He received the Lesley Goodman Award of the Royal Entomological Society in 2006. Lars Chittka has been an Editor of Biology’s foremost open access journal PLoS Biology since ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bombus Transversalis
''Bombus transversalis'' is a bumblebee specifically native to the Amazon Basin. It is most notable for its surface level colonies which are built by the workers on the rainforest floor. Unlike its relatives, ''B. transversalis'' is able to thrive in a humid climate and fend off a wide range of predators because of its resilient nests. While there is great deal of information pertaining to their nests and foraging abilities, there is much more to be learned about relationships within the colony and life cycle of the bee. Taxonomy and Phylogenetics ''Bombus transversalis'' is in the order Hymenoptera, which consists of bees, ants, wasps, and sawflies. It is in the family Apidae and in the genus ''Bombus''. Most ''Bombus'' live in temperate climates and build their nests underground from abandoned tunnels. ''Bombus transversalis'' has adapted to tropical climates and builds its nests on ground surface. It is classified under the subgenus ''Thoracobombus''. An example of a related ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yellow-faced Bumblebee
''Bombus vosnesenskii'', the yellow-faced bumblebee, is a species of bumblebee native to the west coast of North America, where it is distributed from British Columbia to Baja California. It is the most abundant species of bee in this range, and can be found in both urban and agricultural areas. Additionally, ''B. vosnesenskii'' is utilized as an important pollinator in commercial agriculture, especially for greenhouse tomatoes. Though the species is not currently experiencing population decline, urbanization has affected its nesting densities, and early emergence of the ''B. vosnesenskii'' has been implicated in the increasing lack of bee diversity on the West coast. Taxonomy and phylogeny The genus name ''Bombus'' – the bumblebee – comes from the Latin word which means a buzzing or humming sound. There are 250 species split into 38 subgenera within the genus ''Bombus''. These subgroups share similar morphologies, despite their varied habitats and behavioral patterns. How ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Buff-tailed Bumblebee
''Bombus terrestris'', the buff-tailed bumblebee or large earth bumblebee, is one of the most numerous bumblebee species in Europe. It is one of the main species used in greenhouse pollination, and so can be found in many countries and areas where it is not native, such as Tasmania. Moreover, it is a eusocial insect with an overlap of generations, a division of labor, and cooperative brood care. The queen is monandrous which means she mates with only one male. ''B. terrestris'' workers learn flower colors and forage efficiently. Taxonomy and phylogenetics ''B. terrestris'' is part of the order Hymenoptera, which is composed of ants, bees, and wasps. The family Apidae specifically consists of bees. It is also part of the subfamily Apinae. There are 14 tribe lineages within Apinae, and ''B. terrestris'' is in the bumblebee tribe, Bombini. It is in the genus ''Bombus'', which consists entirely of bumblebees, and the subgenus ''Bombus sensu stricto''. This subgenus contains closely ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Common Eastern Bumblebee
''Bombus impatiens'', the common eastern bumble bee, is the most commonly encountered bumblebee across much of eastern North America. They can be found in the Eastern temperate forest region of the eastern United States, southern Canada, and the eastern Great Plains. Because of their great adaptability, they can live in country, suburbs, and even urban cities. This adaptability makes them a great pollinator species, leading to an increase in their commercial use by greenhouse industry. This increase consequently led to their farther spread outside their previous distribution range. They are considered one of the most important species of pollinator bees in North America. Taxonomy and phylogeny The generic epithet (the first part of the name) ''Bombus'' comes from the genus ''Bombus'', which is also commonly known as bumblebee and belongs to the tribe '' Bombini''. The specific name (the latter half of its scientific name) may come from the flowers of the genus ''Impatiens,'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Animal Communication
Animal communication is the transfer of information from one or a group of animals (sender or senders) to one or more other animals (receiver or receivers) that affects the current or future behavior of the receivers. Information may be sent intentionally, as in a courtship display, or unintentionally, as in the transfer of scent from predator to prey. Information may be transferred to an "audience" of several receivers. Animal communication is a rapidly growing area of study in disciplines including animal behavior, sociology, neurology and animal cognition. Many aspects of animal behavior, such as symbolic name use, emotional expression, learning and sexual behavior, are being understood in new ways. When the information from the sender changes the behavior of a receiver, the information is referred to as a "signal". Signalling theory predicts that for a signal to be maintained in the population, both the sender and receiver should usually receive some benefit from the int ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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