Bees can use sophisticated signals to warn their nestmates about the level of danger from predators¹ attacking foragers or the nest, according to a new study. Biologists at UC San Diego and in China found that an Asian species of honey bee can produce different types of vibrational² "stop signals" when attacked by giant Asian hornets.

 

These signals have different effects depending upon type of danger and the context. A bee delivers a stop signal by giving another bee a brief, vibrational pulse, usually through a head-butt.

 

"Surprisingly, this signal encodes the level of danger in its vibrational frequency, its pitch, and the danger context through the duration of each pulse," said James Nieh, a professor of biology at UC San Diego who headed the research team., which was also led by Ken³ Tan, a professor at Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Science.

 

The scientists report their discovery, which they say is the most sophisticated form of alarm signaling found in a social insect, in a paper published this week in the open-access journal PLOS Biology.

 

Six years ago, Nieh discovered that foragers of the European honey bee, Apis mellifera, when attacked at a food source, will return to the nest and deliver stop signals to nestmates recruiting for the dangerous food source. These signals were known to inhibit⁴ recruitment, the famous waggle dance of the honey bee, but researchers did not know what triggered stop signals.

 

"Stop signals are usually delivered by a sender butting⁵ her head into a recipient⁶. Understanding that these signals can be triggered by danger and reduce recruitment for dangerous food therefore made sense," explained Nieh.

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