McCall Martin

Biology 1610/1615
Article Summary
Due April 12, 2018

Radar Tracking and Motion-Sensitive Cameras on Flowers Reveal the Development of

Pollinator Multi-Destination Routes over Large Spatial Scales

Introduction

Foraging animals, such as bumble bees, tend to form pathways in their environments

and everyday lives to survive. These animals create and maintain daily routes from their homes

to go out and find food sources to sustain them and give them energy. Most of what we know

about foragers in the wild are from observing the pathways of birds and insects between their

homes and other important locations. The patterns of these animals in the wild aren’t well

known due to the difficulty of tracking them. Scientists would need to cover large areas of land

and need to fully learn about the past and current behavior of the wild animal they're

observing. Once a food source is used up in their habitat, the animals must go out and find

other locations for food. How these animals know where to find different food sources and

what route they decide to take to each new source before they make their way back home is

still being studied to this day.

These routes bumble bees repeatedly take to food sources are known as traplines, and

have been a point of study with small spatial scales. The flowers used in studies within a small

area have all been visible from each of the other flowers. The small spatial scale of the

experiments along with the closely placed flowers in previous studies are much different than a

bumble bees' natural environment. Since the routing behavior of foraging animals is so difficult
to understand, these scientists have set up an experiment to try and understand the behaviors

of bumble bees in their natural environments and how they choose and modify their traplines.

Not only does this study help to understand bumble bees (a species that is dangerously

reaching small numbers), it also helps understand a famous unsolved math problem called,

"The Traveling Salesman Problem." This is the goal to find the shortest route while traveling to

every location, then returning to the place of origin with the greatest efficiency. This study

helps understand insects and how they use simple algorithms as ways to solve problems and

apply what they learn to their everyday lives.

Since similar studies have only been done over a small spatial scale, the scientists in this

study are trying to learn how bumble bees develop long distance traplines with their experience

as foragers. They are looking for repeatable traplines of bees and their ability to find the

shortest possible route between flowers. The scientists observing this experiment hypothesized

that bumble bees rely on learnt sensory skills. They set up two experiments to observe and

learn from. Their first objective was to establish if bees form a repeatable pathway to gather a

sugar solution placed in flowers, between different stationary feeding locations. The scientists

second objective was to learn how experienced bees optimize their pathways when there is a

change to their familiar spatial scale.

Materials and Methods

The scientists in this study obtained 7 Bombus terrestris, also known as bumble bees.

Each individual bee was pre-trained to gather a sugar solution as a reward from artificial

flowers. In the study, five artificial flowers were used and had a marked landing strip on them.
The experiment happened in a large pasture during Autumn when flowers weren't blossoming

so bees weren't easily distracted.

The five artificial flowers were set up in a pentagon shape far enough away from each

other. Each flower had a motion-detector webcam on it to record the bees whilst a video was

recorded each time a bee triggered the cameras. The bees were marked with numbered tags

made of plastic to monitor their foraging history along with a harmonic radar and transponders

on the tags to help locate the bees and their locations in the field. Nothing placed on the bees

altered the bees' flight pattern or compromised their flight abilities.

During the first experiment bees were tested individually for seven hours each on

different days. The flowers in use were filled with 1/5 of the bee's regular crop capacity, which

is where they store pollen or nectar they collect. Every 1/5 of solution in the flowers was made

of a 40% sucrose (sugar) solution. The flowers were set up in a pentagonal shape and refilled

after a bee visited the flower.

During the second experiment, one of the artificial flowers were removed from the site

and a new, unfamiliar flower was placed in a different location of the spatial scale. Only three of

the seven bees were involved in this experiment for 8 foraging circuits.

Results
The findings of the first experiment showed that bees discovered each flower in a

sequential order and visited each flower at least once after about 8 foraging circuits. All seven

bees discovered the two flowers closest to the nest first and the flower furthest from the nest
was found last by four of the bees. It was discovered that each bee had their own preference

of landing on the flower as they all came in from different angles.

The second experiment showed the removal of a familiar flower resulted in bees

increasing their total flight duration. They seemed to follow their original route from

experiment one with the flowers they were already familiar with. Their travel distance

increased greatly, they started to revisit empty flowers. Since the bees only seemed to be

visiting familiar flowers they were not able to fill their crops to capacity. Therefore, repeating

the entire pathway once or twice before returning to their nests.

Discussion
The first experiment showed that as bees gained more experience, they seemed to

increase the number of flowers they visited in each new bout they did while also lowering the

chances of revisiting an empty flower. The experience gained by the bees was used to make

links to other fellow flowers and flowers to their nests. The shorter bouts were generally

chosen by the bees to take again while the longer bouts were usually forgotten.

In the second experiment, the scientists had observed what was expected of the bees.

They observed that the bees had kept to their familiar pathways in the order the bees first

discovered. Two of the three bees did not seem to re-explore the experimental field, instead

they kept to what they already knew.

Overall, the radar tracks that were recorded during the experiments did confirm the

hypothesis that bees will find the shortest route possible in their foraging bouts to visit all the

flowers in their routines. Bees memorize and compare the net length of the route traveled to
the route they're currently on. Bees form their routes with a trial and error approach. They use

a combination of experience, memory, exploring and learning.

This study could have been done over a longer period with more flowers and more bees.

The second experiment could have been performed with more than three of the seven bees.

Also, different species of bumble bees could be used along with different flowers. I would have

also liked to see other foraging animals used as well, such as hummingbirds, bats etc.

The scientists over this experiment encourage further studies to be done to clarify and

understand small animal's brains better along with their foraging habits. They believe the

ability of these creatures to develop multi routing solutions could be the key to learning easy

solutions to future problems.

Bibliography
Lihoreau M, Raine NE, Reynolds AM, Stelzer RJ, Lim KS, Smith AD. (2012) Radar Tracking and Motion-
Sensitive Cameras on Flowers Reveal the Development of Pollinator Multi-Destination Routes over Large
Spatial Scales. PLoS Biol 10(9): e1001392