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(Reference retrieved automatically from Web of Science through information on FAPESP grant and its corresponding number as mentioned in the publication by the authors.)

Honey bee workers generate low-frequency vibrations that are reliable indicators of their activity level

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Author(s):
Hrncir, Michael [1] ; Maia-Silva, Camila [1] ; Farina, Walter M. [2, 3]
Total Authors: 3
Affiliation:
[1] Univ Fed Rural Semi Arido, Dept Biociencias, Mossoro, RN - Brazil
[2] Univ Buenos Aires, Dept Biodiversidad & Biol Expt, Lab Insectos Sociales, Fac Ciencias Exactas & Nat, Buenos Aires, DF - Argentina
[3] Univ Buenos Aires, Inst Fisiol Biol Mol & Neurociencias, IFIBYNE, CONICET, Buenos Aires, DF - Argentina
Total Affiliations: 3
Document type: Journal article
Source: JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE PHYSIOLOGY A-NEUROETHOLOGY SENSORY NEURAL AND BEHAVI; v. 205, n. 1, p. 79-86, FEB 2019.
Web of Science Citations: 0
Abstract

In social insects, the tuning of activity levels among different worker task groups, which constitutes a fundamental basis of colony organization, relies on the exchange of reliable information on the activity level of individuals. The underlying stimuli, however, have remained largely unexplored so far. In the present study, we describe low-frequency thoracic vibrations generated by honey bee workers (Apis mellifera) within the colony, whose velocity amplitudes and main frequency components significantly increased with the level of an individual's activity. The characteristics of these vibrations segregated three main activity level-groups: foragers, active hive bees, and inactive hive bees. Nectar foragers, moreover, modulated their low-frequency vibrations during trophallactic food unloading to nestmates according to the quality of the collected food. Owing to their clear association with the activity level of an individual and their potential perceptibility during direct contacts, these low-frequency thoracic vibrations are candidate stimuli for providing unambiguous local information on the motivational status of honey bee workers. (AU)