In reference to Dr. Kevan's question about Foraging Distance.
     Interesting data concerning this point were also considered in the
 following works:
- Knafl (1953): "Ueber die Flugweite und Entfernungsmeldung der Bienen".
                 Z. Bienenforsch. 2, 131-140.
- Levin & Glowska-Konopacka (1963): "Responses of foraging honeybees in alfalfa
 to increasing competition from other colonies".
                 J. Apic. Research 2, 33-42.
 
These papers were analyzed in Dr. J. Nunez's work "Honeybee Foraging Strategies
 in Relation to its Distance from the Hive and the Rate of Sugar Flow" (J. Apic.
 Research 21, 139-150, 1982).
     As pointed out by Ed Southwick, there is certainly a relationship between
 the forager density and the foraging area and this was plotted in Nunez's
 paper. He founds coincident representations (Fig. 9) of the distribution of
 foragers as a function of
the radius of the exploited area. The cumulative number of foragers in the field
 increases almost proportionately with the radius of the exploited area up to
 about 1000 m from the hive but beyond this distance, the increment is small.
 These data are anal
yzed in relation to the sugar (energy) gain and the distance of the source from
 the hive.
 
Cheers,
 
Martin Giurfa
Lab. of Behavioural Physiology
Dept. of Biological Sciences - FCEyN
University of Buenos Aires
4o piso, Pab. II, Cdad Universitaria - CP 1428 Buenos Aires
ARGENTINA
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