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First published online October 19, 2007
Journal of Experimental Biology 210, 3763-3770 (2007)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2007
doi: 10.1242/jeb.009563

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Honeybees perform optimal scale-free searching flights when attempting to locate a food source

Andrew M. Reynolds^1,*, Alan D. Smith¹, Don R. Reynolds², Norman L. Carreck¹ and Juliet L. Osborne¹

¹ Rothamsted Research, Harpenden, Hertfordshire, AL5 2JQ, UK
² Natural Resources Institute, University of Greenwich, Chatham, Kent, ME4 4TB, UK

^* Author for correspondence (e-mail: andy.reynolds{at}bbsrc.ac.uk)

Accepted 16 August 2007

The foraging strategies used by animals are key to their success in spatially and temporally heterogeneous environments. We hypothesise that when a food source at a known location ceases to be available, flying insects will exhibit search patterns that optimise the rediscovery of such resources. In order to study these searching patterns, foraging honeybees were trained to an artificial feeder that was then removed, and the subsequent flight patterns of the bees were recorded using harmonic radar. We show that the flight patterns have a scale-free (Lévy-flight) characteristic that constitutes an optimal searching strategy for the location of the feeder. It is shown that this searching strategy would remain optimal even if the implementation of the Lévy-flights was imprecise due, for example, to errors in the bees' path integration system or difficulties in responding to variable wind conditions. The implications of these findings for animal foraging in general are discussed.

Key words: optimal search strategy, imprecise Lévy-flight, honeybee, Apis mellifera, harmonic radar tracking

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