Biology Reference
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Receiver bees locate themselves on the “dance l oor” of the hive, situ-
ated on brood combs near the entrance, and unload the nectar from the
foragers when they return from a foraging trip. h e receiver bee stands
head-to-head with the forager and extends her proboscis. h e forager
opens her mandibles and expresses a droplet of nectar that the receiver
bee sucks into her crop. Sucrose-response thresholds of receiver bees
are modulated by nectar received from foragers. Receiver bees that un-
load nectar of lower sugar concentration are more responsive to sugar.
h e sucrose-response thresholds of other nonforaging bees are dif er-
entially af ected by the l ow of sugar solution in the hive. However, nurse
bees, which are younger on average than receiver bees, are less af ected
by the incoming nectar. h e presence of an odor in sugar solution ampli-
i es the modulation of sucrose-response thresholds in 14-day-old bees,
the age they are likely to be receiver bees, but not in 7-day-old bees, which
are likely to be nurses.
Bees that perform dif erent tasks have dif erent response thresholds
to sucrose solutions. José Pacheco and Mike Breed collected bees that
were engaging in dif erent tasks: foraging for pollen, foraging for nec-
tar, foraging for water, foraging for pollen and nectar, fanning (a behav-
ioral act that can serve in thermoregulating the nest), guarding the
entrance from intruders, and undertaking (the removal of dead bees
from the nest). h ey found consistent dif erences across colonies in su-
crose responses of bees engaged in the dif erent tasks.
2.5.4 Response h resholds Vary with Age
and Exposure to Pheromones
Responses to sucrose change with age. Tanya Pankiw tested bees for
their responses to sucrose solutions before they initiated foraging. Bees
were of three age classes: (1) less than 48 hours old, (2) more than 48
hours but less than 1 week old, and (3) more than 1 week but less than 2
weeks old. She found that responsiveness to sucrose increased with age.
Pheromones are chemicals commonly used by insects for communi-
cation. Honey bees produce many dif erent pheromones that aid in the
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