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> The effect of repeated vibration signals on worker behavior

> As a signaler moves through the colony, she contacts and vibrates hundreds of 
individual workers, but her signals are preferentially directed toward less active bees of 
all ages. The performance of vibration signals on multiple different workers distributed 
throughout large areas of the nest can simultaneously influence a broad spectrum of 
colony activities that must be adjusted to changes in colony food intake and energy 
needs. Second, an individual recipient may receive vibration signals repeatedly during a 
given period of time. The function of this repetition is unknown, but it could affect 
recipient behavior in at least two ways. First, it could cause cumulative increases in 
activity. Vibrated recipients show slight, significant increases in juvenile hormone titers, 
which may contribute to greater task performance by altering metabolic rates and 
response thresholds. Some workers may require repeated vibration signals to initiate a 
level of task performance that other recipients can achieve with only one signal. Or, an 
individual bee may need to be vibrated repeatedly to maintain task performance if its 
response to each signal is low or decays rapidly, whereas other recipients may require 
fewer signals to maintain similar levels of activity.

The effect of repeated vibration signals on worker behavior
Tuan T. Cao, et al
Behav Ecol Sociobiol (2009) 63:521–529

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