The Flight Guidance Mechanisms of Honey Bee Swarms : 11


Figure 5. Flight speeds of three swarms as they flew 270 metres to a bait hive. Their top speeds were 5–7 km/h. When swarms perform longer flights, they can reach speeds of nearly 12 km/h


the speediest bees were flying directly toward the new home while the slowest ones were heading in the opposite direction.


By comparing the plots for the top and bottom portions of the swarm cloud, we can also see that the speedsters were mainly found in the top portion of the swarm. It was further revealed that not only did bees that flew in the direction of the new home tend to fly with the highest velocities, but that they also tended to accelerate (increase their velocities) as they moved from the rear of the swarm cloud to its front. It seems likely that some of this rise in flight speed came about as some follower bees ‘latched on’ to the leader bees, boosting their speed by chasing after the leader bees. If so, then the information about flight direction probably spreads from the informed bees (leaders) to the nearby ignorant bees (followers) who, through their own faster flights, will start to influence other ignorant bees. This chain reaction of informed bees begetting more informed bees could lead to a widespread induction of bees to fly towards the swarm’s destination and to fly faster. This can explain the increase in swarm flight


April 2015 Vol 97 No 4


speed over time that is shown in Figure 5 and which is so impressive to any beekeeper who has tried to follow a fugitive swarm to its new home by running along beneath it.


Unanswered Questions


Many questions remain unanswered about the remarkable flights of honey bee swarms. How does the moving group ‘apply the brakes’ when it is within 90 metres (see Figure 5) of its new residence? Also, how exactly do the informed bees make their repeated streaker flights through the swarm cloud? Do they tend to stop when they reach the front and let other bees fly past, or do they usually fly rearward underneath the swarm, where they may be nearly invisible against the dark vegetation below?


And how is it that virtually all the scout bees who have visited the chosen home site, and so can steer the airborne swarm to it, leave the future dwelling place and assemble back on the swarm shortly before it launches into flight?


It certainly makes sense for all these scout bees to return to the swarm before it takes off, for we have seen how only 3–4%


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of a swarm’s membership know its flight plan. And with such a small minority of navigators, it must be important to have as many as possible on board. Do scouts lingering at the home site fly back to the swarm in response to feeling, seeing, or smelling some ‘time to leave!’ signal produced by scouts that have sensed that the swarm’s lift-off is imminent and then have made a special trip to the home site to recall everyone? We wouldn’t be surprised if the bees possess some secret gadgetry for ensuring that a swarm about to take flight is well stocked with the informed bees who can pilot it safely to its new home. ♠


References


Beekman, M, Fathke, RL and Seeley, TD (2006). How does an informed minority of scouts guide a honey bee swarm as it flies to its new home? Animal Behaviour, 71, 161–171.


The Authors


Tom Seeley is a Professor of Biology in the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA. He is also a passionate hobby beekeeper.


Ann Chilcott is an author and beekeeper who currently serves as a trustee and the North Area Representative for the Scottish Beekeepers’ Association. She holds the SBA Advanced Beemaster’s Certificate and mentors new beekeepers in rural Nairnshire, Scotland, where she lives.


Greggers, U, Schöning, C, Degen, J and Menzel, R (2013). Scouts behave as streakers in honeybee swarms. Naturwissenschaften, 100, 805–809.


Lindauer, M (1955). Schwarmbienen auf Wohnungssuche. Zeitschrift für vergleichende Physiologie, 37, 263–324.


Schultz, K, Passino, KM and Seeley, TD (2008). The mechanism of flight guidance in honeybee swarms: subtle guides or streaker bees? Journal of Experimental Biology, 211, 3287–3295.


Seeley, TD (2010). Honeybee Democracy. Princeton University Press.


Seeley, TD and Buhrman, SC (1999). Group decision making in swarms of honey bees. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 45, 19–31.


Seeley, TD, Morse, RA and Visscher, PK (1979). The natural history of the flight of honey bee swarms. Psyche, 86, 103–113.


Visscher, PK (2007). Group decision making in nest-site selection among social insects. Annual Review of Entomology, 52, 255–275.


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