University of California, San Diego
The Department of Psychology is Honored
to Present a Talk by
James Nieh
University of California, San Diego
"Recruitment Communication in Stingless Bees: Olfactory Eavesdropping and Counterespionage Strategies"
Presented on May 18, 2006
Location: The Crick Conference Room
Mandler Hall, room 3545
- Abstract:
- Some social insects possess a remarkable ability to communicate the location of good resources to nestmates, evolving multimodal and, in some cases, referential communication systems. The most famous is the honeybee waggle dance, which communicates the distance and direction to a resource. However, relatively little is known about communication in the closely related and highly social stingless bees. Over the past twelve years, I have been delving into the complex recruitment systems of stingless bees, examining acoustic and chemical communication, and the role of food competition. My collaborators and I have found evidence supporting the hypothesis that some species can also use referential communication. In addition, some species can communicate three-dimensional resource location and use olfactory strategies ranging from complete odor trails, partial odor trails, and point-source odor marks. Recently, we have also shown that at least one aggressive species uses olfactory eavesdropping to detect resources odor-marked by a less aggressive victim species. Attackers then arrive in large groups and kill or drive away the victims. This raises the intriguing possibility that referential communication inside the fortress-like nest has evolved, in part, as a counterespionage strategy. Referential communication allows foragers to encode food location information at the nest instead of depositing odor trails. Interestingly, all species that show evidence of referential communication also do not use odor trails, even though multimodal strategies of information backup are quite widespread in social bee communication. Could honeybee and stingless bee referential communication evolved, in part, as a response to aggressive eavesdropping?
- About the Speaker:
- James Nieh is interested in the evolution of multimodal communication in social bees. Currently, he is studying how olfactory eavesdropping may have influenced different food location communication strategies in stingless bees. A second focus is on olfactory, tactile, acoustic, and thermal signals or cues that are involved in foraging and food alertment or recruitment in the social bees (Bombini, Apini, and Meliponini). The goal is develop a greater understanding of potentially homologous or convergent communication signals within the social bees through studies mapping communication traits onto social bee phylogenies. His field sites include San Diego; Tapachula, Mexico; Barro Colorado Island, Panama; and São Simao, Brazil where he collaborates with researchers from Harvard and UC Riverside; El Colegio de la Frontera Sur, and the University of São Paulo Ribeirao Preto.
