Sun angle time windows for absconding by the dwarf honeybee, Apis florea
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Publication Details
Author list: Duangphakdee O., Radloff S.E., Pirk C.W.W., Hepburn R.
Publisher: Elsevier
Publication year: 2009
Journal: Journal of Insect Physiology (0022-1910)
Volume number: 55
Issue number: 11
Start page: 1009
End page: 1012
Number of pages: 4
ISSN: 0022-1910
Languages: English-Great Britain (EN-GB)
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Abstract
In Asia, the red dwarf honeybee, Apis florea, is notorious for its absconding habit. Interestingly, such colonies show a bimodal frequency distribution about a noonday lull throughout the year. Because slight errors in reading the relative position of the sun near its zenith results in very large orientation errors in the waggle dances of other honeybees in the tropics, we postulated that the frequency distribution of absconding in the red dwarf honeybee relative to local clock time could be explained in similar fashion. The frequency distribution of absconding by the red dwarf honeybee with respect to time was found to be bimodal with a pronounced lull at noonday, which in turn is related to the altitude angle of the sun. So, these bees largely avoid flying off between 12:00 h and 13:00 h on the one hand and that their preferred departure angle of the sun is between 55ฐ and 65ฐ on the other. Given the difficulties of taking an accurate reading of the sun at angles ฑ6ฐ of the sun's zenith (resulting in a 1 h loss around noon) and the 2 h required to reach consensus over the final direction to be flown, the bees are simply left with two time windows, morning and afternoon, in which to abscond and, indeed some 90% of the red dwarf honeybee colonies do so. The noonday lull is not associated with high temperatures for any given day. Absconding is not inhibited by high temperatures. ฉ 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords
altitude, Navigation, Sun angle
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