Mapping sleeping bees within their nest: spatial and temporal analysis of worker honey bee sleep.

Patterns of behavior within societies have long been visualized and interpreted using maps. Mapping the occurrence of sleep across individuals within a society could offer clues as to functional aspects of sleep. In spite of this, a detailed spatial analysis of sleep has never been conducted on an i...

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Main Authors: Barrett Anthony Klein, Martin Stiegler, Arno Klein, Jürgen Tautz
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2014-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4100802?pdf=render
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author Barrett Anthony Klein
Martin Stiegler
Arno Klein
Jürgen Tautz
author_facet Barrett Anthony Klein
Martin Stiegler
Arno Klein
Jürgen Tautz
author_sort Barrett Anthony Klein
collection DOAJ
description Patterns of behavior within societies have long been visualized and interpreted using maps. Mapping the occurrence of sleep across individuals within a society could offer clues as to functional aspects of sleep. In spite of this, a detailed spatial analysis of sleep has never been conducted on an invertebrate society. We introduce the concept of mapping sleep across an insect society, and provide an empirical example, mapping sleep patterns within colonies of European honey bees (Apis mellifera L.). Honey bees face variables such as temperature and position of resources within their colony's nest that may impact their sleep. We mapped sleep behavior and temperature of worker bees and produced maps of their nest's comb contents as the colony grew and contents changed. By following marked bees, we discovered that individuals slept in many locations, but bees of different worker castes slept in different areas of the nest relative to position of the brood and surrounding temperature. Older worker bees generally slept outside cells, closer to the perimeter of the nest, in colder regions, and away from uncapped brood. Younger worker bees generally slept inside cells and closer to the center of the nest, and spent more time asleep than awake when surrounded by uncapped brood. The average surface temperature of sleeping foragers was lower than the surface temperature of their surroundings, offering a possible indicator of sleep for this caste. We propose mechanisms that could generate caste-dependent sleep patterns and discuss functional significance of these patterns.
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spelling doaj.art-5692f00f28b24412a520ec97374ffd372022-12-22T03:38:20ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032014-01-0197e10231610.1371/journal.pone.0102316Mapping sleeping bees within their nest: spatial and temporal analysis of worker honey bee sleep.Barrett Anthony KleinMartin StieglerArno KleinJürgen TautzPatterns of behavior within societies have long been visualized and interpreted using maps. Mapping the occurrence of sleep across individuals within a society could offer clues as to functional aspects of sleep. In spite of this, a detailed spatial analysis of sleep has never been conducted on an invertebrate society. We introduce the concept of mapping sleep across an insect society, and provide an empirical example, mapping sleep patterns within colonies of European honey bees (Apis mellifera L.). Honey bees face variables such as temperature and position of resources within their colony's nest that may impact their sleep. We mapped sleep behavior and temperature of worker bees and produced maps of their nest's comb contents as the colony grew and contents changed. By following marked bees, we discovered that individuals slept in many locations, but bees of different worker castes slept in different areas of the nest relative to position of the brood and surrounding temperature. Older worker bees generally slept outside cells, closer to the perimeter of the nest, in colder regions, and away from uncapped brood. Younger worker bees generally slept inside cells and closer to the center of the nest, and spent more time asleep than awake when surrounded by uncapped brood. The average surface temperature of sleeping foragers was lower than the surface temperature of their surroundings, offering a possible indicator of sleep for this caste. We propose mechanisms that could generate caste-dependent sleep patterns and discuss functional significance of these patterns.http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4100802?pdf=render
spellingShingle Barrett Anthony Klein
Martin Stiegler
Arno Klein
Jürgen Tautz
Mapping sleeping bees within their nest: spatial and temporal analysis of worker honey bee sleep.
PLoS ONE
title Mapping sleeping bees within their nest: spatial and temporal analysis of worker honey bee sleep.
title_full Mapping sleeping bees within their nest: spatial and temporal analysis of worker honey bee sleep.
title_fullStr Mapping sleeping bees within their nest: spatial and temporal analysis of worker honey bee sleep.
title_full_unstemmed Mapping sleeping bees within their nest: spatial and temporal analysis of worker honey bee sleep.
title_short Mapping sleeping bees within their nest: spatial and temporal analysis of worker honey bee sleep.
title_sort mapping sleeping bees within their nest spatial and temporal analysis of worker honey bee sleep
url http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4100802?pdf=render
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