Intra-dance variation among waggle runs and the design of efficient protocols for honey bee dance decoding
Summary Noise is universal in information transfer. In animal communication, this presents a challenge not only for intended signal receivers, but also to biologists studying the system. In honey bees, a forager communicates to nestmates the location of an important resource via the waggle dance. Th...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
The Company of Biologists
2012-03-01
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| Series: | Biology Open |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://bio.biologists.org/content/1/5/467 |
| _version_ | 1818940992647069696 |
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| author | Margaret J. Couvillon Fiona C. Riddell Pearce Elisabeth L. Harris-Jones Amanda M. Kuepfer Samantha J. Mackenzie-Smith Laura A. Rozario Roger Schürch Francis L. W. Ratnieks |
| author_facet | Margaret J. Couvillon Fiona C. Riddell Pearce Elisabeth L. Harris-Jones Amanda M. Kuepfer Samantha J. Mackenzie-Smith Laura A. Rozario Roger Schürch Francis L. W. Ratnieks |
| author_sort | Margaret J. Couvillon |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Summary
Noise is universal in information transfer. In animal communication, this presents a challenge not only for intended signal receivers, but also to biologists studying the system. In honey bees, a forager communicates to nestmates the location of an important resource via the waggle dance. This vibrational signal is composed of repeating units (waggle runs) that are then averaged by nestmates to derive a single vector. Manual dance decoding is a powerful tool for studying bee foraging ecology, although the process is time-consuming: a forager may repeat the waggle run 1- >100 times within a dance. It is impractical to decode all of these to obtain the vector; however, intra-dance waggle runs vary, so it is important to decode enough to obtain a good average. Here we examine the variation among waggle runs made by foraging bees to devise a method of dance decoding. The first and last waggle runs within a dance are significantly more variable than the middle run. There was no trend in variation for the middle waggle runs. We recommend that any four consecutive waggle runs, not including the first and last runs, may be decoded, and we show that this methodology is suitable by demonstrating the goodness-of-fit between the decoded vectors from our subsamples with the vectors from the entire dances. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-20T06:48:27Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-86d37b6edf68457aba893089488e53d0 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2046-6390 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-20T06:48:27Z |
| publishDate | 2012-03-01 |
| publisher | The Company of Biologists |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Biology Open |
| spelling | doaj.art-86d37b6edf68457aba893089488e53d02022-12-21T19:49:37ZengThe Company of BiologistsBiology Open2046-63902012-03-011546747210.1242/bio.2012109920121099Intra-dance variation among waggle runs and the design of efficient protocols for honey bee dance decodingMargaret J. Couvillon0Fiona C. Riddell Pearce1Elisabeth L. Harris-Jones2Amanda M. Kuepfer3Samantha J. Mackenzie-Smith4Laura A. Rozario5Roger Schürch6Francis L. W. Ratnieks7 Laboratory of Apiculture and Social Insects Laboratory of Apiculture and Social Insects Laboratory of Apiculture and Social Insects Laboratory of Apiculture and Social Insects Department of Geography, School of Global Studies, University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9QJ, UK Laboratory of Apiculture and Social Insects Social Evolution Research Group, School of Life Sciences, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton BN1 9QG, UK Laboratory of Apiculture and Social Insects Summary Noise is universal in information transfer. In animal communication, this presents a challenge not only for intended signal receivers, but also to biologists studying the system. In honey bees, a forager communicates to nestmates the location of an important resource via the waggle dance. This vibrational signal is composed of repeating units (waggle runs) that are then averaged by nestmates to derive a single vector. Manual dance decoding is a powerful tool for studying bee foraging ecology, although the process is time-consuming: a forager may repeat the waggle run 1- >100 times within a dance. It is impractical to decode all of these to obtain the vector; however, intra-dance waggle runs vary, so it is important to decode enough to obtain a good average. Here we examine the variation among waggle runs made by foraging bees to devise a method of dance decoding. The first and last waggle runs within a dance are significantly more variable than the middle run. There was no trend in variation for the middle waggle runs. We recommend that any four consecutive waggle runs, not including the first and last runs, may be decoded, and we show that this methodology is suitable by demonstrating the goodness-of-fit between the decoded vectors from our subsamples with the vectors from the entire dances.http://bio.biologists.org/content/1/5/467Waggle danceHoney beeApis melliferaAnimal communicationSocial insect recruitment |
| spellingShingle | Margaret J. Couvillon Fiona C. Riddell Pearce Elisabeth L. Harris-Jones Amanda M. Kuepfer Samantha J. Mackenzie-Smith Laura A. Rozario Roger Schürch Francis L. W. Ratnieks Intra-dance variation among waggle runs and the design of efficient protocols for honey bee dance decoding Biology Open Waggle dance Honey bee Apis mellifera Animal communication Social insect recruitment |
| title | Intra-dance variation among waggle runs and the design of efficient protocols for honey bee dance decoding |
| title_full | Intra-dance variation among waggle runs and the design of efficient protocols for honey bee dance decoding |
| title_fullStr | Intra-dance variation among waggle runs and the design of efficient protocols for honey bee dance decoding |
| title_full_unstemmed | Intra-dance variation among waggle runs and the design of efficient protocols for honey bee dance decoding |
| title_short | Intra-dance variation among waggle runs and the design of efficient protocols for honey bee dance decoding |
| title_sort | intra dance variation among waggle runs and the design of efficient protocols for honey bee dance decoding |
| topic | Waggle dance Honey bee Apis mellifera Animal communication Social insect recruitment |
| url | http://bio.biologists.org/content/1/5/467 |
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