Meeting Abstract
Bumblebees are able to obtain information both through personal experience, i.e. personal information, and from their conspecifics, i.e. social information, however it is unknown how bumblebees weigh information to make the best decisions. This ability to weigh decisions and act on the one with the highest value would allow the bees to make the most of the resources within the territory of their colony, as they would not be wasting time and energy obtaining resources from less valuable sources. Foraging situations were created in which individual bumblebees were confronted with social information that conflicted with their personal information and their responses were monitor and analyzed. Bumblebees were presented with an arena where the values of food resources were controlled by altering the sugar concentration within artificial flowers and the number of fresh flowers present at the feeders. The foraging patches that bees choose, the behavior of the bees after they return to the nest and communicate with their nest mates, and the subsequent foraging choices bees made after social information was assessed was be monitored. Data suggests that the bees respond to the initial change in food distribution by increasing the number of foragers out at any one time. The foragers would consistently visit both feeders, but foraged at the feeder with the greater amount of food. The number of foragers decreased to control levels on the second day of uneven food distribution, but time spent foraging remained high. It is unknown ‘if’ or ‘how’ bumblebees are evaluating information and then acting upon this evaluation, but this assay provides a new way to study communication and information processing in bumblebees.
