<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p> The honeybee swarming process is steered by few scout individuals, which are the unique informed on the location of the target destination. Theoretical and experimental results suggest that bee coordinated flight arises from visual signals. However, how the information is passed within the population is still debated. Moreover, it has been observed that honeybees are highly sensitive to conflicting directional information. In fact, swarms exposed to fast-moving bees headed in the wrong direction show clear signs of disrupted guidance. In this respect, we here present a discrete mathematical model to investigate different hypotheses on the behaviour both of informed and uninformed bees. In this perspective, numerical realizations, specifically designed to mimic selected experiments, reveal that only one combination of the considered assumptions is able to reproduce the empirical outcomes, resulting thereby the most reliable mechanism underlying the swarm dynamics according to the proposed approach. Specifically, this study suggests that (i) leaders indicate the right flight direction by repeatedly streaking at high speed pointing towards the target and then slowly coming back to the trailing edge of the bee cloud; and (ii) uninformed bees, in turn, gather the route information by adapting their movement to all the bees sufficiently close to their position.</p></abstract>

The honeybee swarming process is steered by few scout individuals, which are the unique informed on the location of the target destination. Theoretical and experimental results suggest that bee coordinated flight arises from visual signals. However, how the information is passed within the population is still debated. Moreover, it has been observed that honeybees are highly sensitive to conflicting directional information. In fact, swarms exposed to fast-moving bees headed in the wrong direction show clear signs of disrupted guidance. In this respect, we here present a discrete mathematical model to investigate different hypotheses on the behaviour both of informed and uninformed bees. In this perspective, numerical realizations, specifically designed to mimic selected experiments, reveal that only one combination of the considered assumptions is able to reproduce the empirical outcomes, resulting thereby the most reliable mechanism underlying the swarm dynamics according to the proposed approach. Specifically, this study suggests that (i) leaders indicate the right flight direction by repeatedly streaking at high speed pointing towards the target and then slowly coming back to the trailing edge of the bee cloud; and (ii) uninformed bees, in turn, gather the route information by adapting their movement to all the bees sufficiently close to their position.

A particle model reproducing the effect of a conflicting flight information on the honeybee swarm guidance

Communications in Applied and Industrial Mathematics

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

The honeybee swarming process is steered by few scout individuals, which are the unique informed on the location of the target destination. Theoretical and...

A particle model reproducing the effect of a conflicting flight information on the honeybee swarm guidance

Published Online: Dec 14, 2018

Page range: 159 - 173

Received: Oct 22, 2018

Accepted: Dec 04, 2018

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/caim-2018-0021

Keywords
Bee swarming, collective dynamics, alignment mechanisms

© 2018 Sara Bernardi, Annachiara Colombi, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

A particle model reproducing the effect of a conflicting flight information on the honeybee swarm guidance

Published Online: Dec 14, 2018

Page range: 159 - 173

Received: Oct 22, 2018

Accepted: Dec 04, 2018

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/caim-2018-0021

KeywordsBee swarming, collective dynamics, alignment mechanisms

© 2018 Sara Bernardi, Annachiara Colombi, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Keywords
Bee swarming, collective dynamics, alignment mechanisms