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Discussion of Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
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Sat, 13 Apr 91 12:53:39 EST
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What an interesting idea! Come to think of it, I venture to suggest that
Apis dorsata may forage in teams. In Indonesia when these bees are
foraging on Decaspermum treelets, they appear en masse over a short
span of time (minutes) and when the foraging stops, it does so equally
abruptly. Foraging takes place over a couple of hours every second
day, when the flowers open. The flowers remain open all day, but it is
only in the morning from ca. 8:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. that the dorsata
bees are present. Andrew Lack (Oxford Polytechnic) and I describe this
activity in our paper in Biol. Journal of the Linnean Society 25:319 -
330 (1985). Reprints are still available to interested Bee-Liners who
want to send their postal addresses. Now, whether the almost synchronous
arrival and departure of the bees represents team foraging, I don't know.
It would seem difficult to completely divorce "team-foraging" from
recruitment.
  There may be another "team" approach to foraging by some bees. I suspect
that some Trigona guard floral patches for nest mates who are foraging.
I can't remember reading anything about this sort of team approach of guards
and foragers, but perhaps others have. Does Roubik make note of anything
like this, I wonder?
With best wishes, Peter Kevan, U of Guelph, On N1G 2W1, Canada.

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