Colony defence in bumblebees (<em>Bombus terrestris</em>)

Bumblebees are key pollinators of both wild plants and agricultural crops;
hence, understanding their biology is critical for conservation efforts as
well as for managing domesticated colonies. While their foraging and
reproductive ecology have received a lot of attention, we know little
about another crucial part of their behavioural repertoire: colony
defence. The first dataset examines the defensive responses of individuals
in whole colonies, maintained at the laboratory, after disturbing them
with a mechanical jolt. As a result, we present a detailed
ethogram of the defensive behaviour of Bombus terrestris in response to
mechanical disturbances, as could be induced by vertebrate attacks or
handling. In addition to identifying and describing the different
responses elicited by this disturbance, this data contains information
about their temporal sequence, their location and the proportion of bees
involved. We also determined whether individual bees produce
specific associations of behaviours, which revealed that a core set of
responses is exhibited by all bees, with other behaviours being randomly
associated. The second dataset compares defensive response based on
disturbance type (mechanical jolt, intruder breath or foreign object).
Overall, we demonstrate that colony defence includes measures preparing
members for a response by signalling about the threat, searching for the
source of the disturbance, warning intruders to maintain distance, and
finally recovering from the disturbance. This comprehensive overview
provides a valuable starting point to further understand how defensive
behaviour is regulated such that bumblebee colonies can survive predator
attacks and thrive.