Recruitment Efficiency in Honeybees: Studies on the Role of Olfaction

Summary

Measurements were made on the activities of worker honeybees which attended waggle dances by marked foragers in an observation hive, and on the success of unmarked recruits in finding a food source in the field. Potential recruits attended waggle dances for about seven straight runs. Most of these bees then left the hive within one minute.

When unscented sucrose was provided at the food site, few unmarked bees reached that source. When scent was added to the food, recruitment efficiency was improved. Numbers of unmarked foragers reaching the source varied directly with the amount of scent provided. Recruitment efficiency was also greatly influenced by alteration of the natural odour in the vicinity of a food source; cutting the grass there increased recruitment to the source, whereas the numbers of unmarked foragers reaching a control site remained unchanged.

Data from our experiments are not consistent with the classic dance “language” hypothesis of honeybee communication, but do indicate that recruited foragers use olfaction in locating a food source in the field.