Temporal variables in honeybee foraging regulation and its ergonomics first insights from a theoretical approach

GONZALO D CORTI BIELSA; LUCIANO MOFFAT; WALTER M FARINA

Montevideo

Congreso; International Congress of Neuroethology; 2016

International Congress of Neuroethology,

The understanding of how a honeybee (Apis mellifera) colony allocates its workforce undernatural conditions is probably in its beginnings. Experimental data mimicking naturalconditions suggest that a wider range of behavioral phenomena is hidden or collapsed to fewaspects in the most of the experimental analyses that explore honeybee foraging activity.Since these experiments are the grounds upon most of the explanatory theoretical models arebuild, frequently these models fail to address some important features of the foraging system.Some models have incorporated the processing subsystem as an important part of theforaging regulation, i.e. successful nectar foragers transfer the collected food by mouth-to-mouth contacts (trophallaxis) to other group into the hive, the food processors. Once theycompleted a nectar load, food processors unload it in the storing area of the hive. However,theoretical approaches miss the modulation of forager behavior under low reward flowregimes (similar to natural situation), where individuals modulates the amount of food theycollect in each foraging visit. We present a first version of an agent-based model of foragingactivity including these issues. Food sources deliver nectar at rates make agents modulatethe nectar volume they gather at the feeding site. Foraging and processing systems areincluded, as well as a detailed model of trophallaxis. According to our simulations, thesaturation level of the processing subsystem, as well as some key parameters for foragersdecision making, such as the mean time until starting the nectar unloading to a processor andit variance depend not only on the proportion of foragers and processors, but also on themodulation of the time outside the hive and the load collected in the field, both variablescontrolled by the reward experience of the honeybee at the food source.