Intelligent Decisions from the Hive Mind: Foragers and Nectar Receivers of Apis mellifera Collaborate to Optimise Active Forager Numbers

TL;DR

This paper introduces a mathematical model of honey bee nectar foraging, showing how foragers and receivers collaborate through simple interactions to optimize forager numbers based on search time, enhancing colony efficiency.

Contribution

It presents a differential equation model that captures the collaborative decision-making process between foragers and nectar receivers in honey bees.

Findings

Search time limits forager population size.

Collaboration leads to optimized nectar collection.

Simple interactions enable complex collective decisions.

Abstract

We present a differential equation-based mathematical model of nectar foraging by the honey bee Apis mellifera. The model focuses on two behavioural classes; nectar foragers and nectar receivers. Results generated from the model are used to demonstrate how different classes within a collective can collaborate to combine information and produce finely tuned decisions through simple interactions. In particular we show the importance of the `search time' - the time a returning forager takes to find an available nectar receiver - in restricting the forager population to a level consistent with colony-wide needs.