Robert Mann enlightened us:
CLIP
> V B Wigglesworth was a - I would suggest the - the top
>scientist in insect physiology. When he says as Bob quotes, you can take
>it as reliable. If VBW said glycogen stored in *flight muscle* supports
>flight for only 10-20 minutes, you can infer that this animal indeed
>possesses the means to replenish that glycogen store several times daily
>(because we know bees typically fly many trips of 10-20min daily).
CLIP
And then asked:
> If in response it be postulated that a bee can die from inability
>to fly owing to depletion of that glycogen store while far from the hive on
>a foray, I would then ask whether it can run on sugars from nectar gathered
>on that very foray. I would expect it to do so. Has this been examined?
The following paper has information that may apply in part:
Southwick,E.E. and S.L. Buchmann. 1995. Effects of horizon landmarks on
homing success in honey bees. THE AMERICAN NATURALIST. 146:748-764
The experimenters released marked foragers at different distances and
measured the fraction of returnees as a function of distance, as well as
the time it took those bees to return to their colonies.
In their Figure 3, the time for 90% return from 2.75km away was about
1400 minutes. Under Wigglesworth's statement, those bees would have had to
use nectar for their return flights.
Adrian
Adrian M. Wenner (805) 963-8508 (home phone)
967 Garcia Road (805) 893-8062 (UCSB FAX)
Santa Barbara, CA 93106 [http://www.beesource.com/pov/wenner/index.htm]
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* "The history of science teaches us that each time we think
* that we have it all figured out, nature has a radical surprise
* in store for us that requires significant and sometimes drastic
* changes in how we think the world works."
*
* Brian Greene (1999:373)
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