10.5061/DRYAD.85TJ6
Russell, Avery L.
University of Arizona
Morrison, Sarah J.
University of Arizona
Moschonas, Eleni H.
University of Arizona
Papaj, Daniel R.
University of Arizona
Data from: Patterns of pollen and nectar foraging specialization by
bumblebees over multiple timescales using RFID
Dryad
dataset
2018
Radio frequency technology
Automation
foraging specialization
foraging effort
Radio frequency technology
reward specialization
National Science Foundation
https://ror.org/021nxhr62
IOS-0921280
2018-01-11T00:00:00Z
2018-01-11T00:00:00Z
en
https://doi.org/10.1038/srep42448
24538055 bytes
1
CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication
The ecological success of social insects is frequently ascribed to
improvements in task performance due to division of labour amongst
workers. While much research has focused on improvements associated with
lifetime task specialization, members of colonies can specialize on a
given task over shorter time periods. Eusocial bees in particular must
collect pollen and nectar rewards to survive, but most workers appear to
mix collection of both rewards over their lifetimes. We asked whether
bumblebees specialize over timescales shorter than their lifetime. We also
explored factors that govern such patterns, and asked whether reward
specialists made more foraging bouts than generalists. In particular, we
described antennal morphology and size of all foragers in a single colony
and related these factors to each forager’s complete foraging history,
obtained using radio frequency identification (RFID). Only a small
proportion of foragers were lifetime specialists; nevertheless,
>50% of foragers specialized daily on a given reward. Contrary to
expectations, daily and lifetime reward specialists were not better
foragers (being neither larger nor making more bouts); larger bees with
more antennal olfactory sensilla made more bouts, but were not more
specialized. We discuss causes and functions of short and long-term
patterns of specialization for bumblebee colonies.
Raw XML RFID outputRaw XML output from the automated RFID system. Data
processed according to the methods described in the publication is
available upon request.RFID_xml.zip