Data from: Patterns of pollen and nectar foraging specialization by bumblebees over multiple timescales using RFID

The ecological success of social insects is frequently ascribed to improvements in task performance due to division of labour amongst workers. While much research has focused on improvements associated with lifetime task specialization, members of colonies can specialize on a given task over shorter time periods. Eusocial bees in particular must collect pollen and nectar rewards to survive, but most workers appear to mix collection of both rewards over their lifetimes. We asked whether bumblebees specialize over timescales shorter than their lifetime. We also explored factors that govern such patterns, and asked whether reward specialists made more foraging bouts than generalists. In particular, we described antennal morphology and size of all foragers in a single colony and related these factors to each forager’s complete foraging history, obtained using radio frequency identification (RFID). Only a small proportion of foragers were lifetime specialists; nevertheless, >50% of foragers specialized daily on a given reward. Contrary to expectations, daily and lifetime reward specialists were not better foragers (being neither larger nor making more bouts); larger bees with more antennal olfactory sensilla made more bouts, but were not more specialized. We discuss causes and functions of short and long-term patterns of specialization for bumblebee colonies.社会性昆虫（social insects）的生态成功常被归因于工蜂间劳动分工带来的任务表现优化。尽管既往大量研究聚焦于终身任务特化所带来的性能提升，但蜂群成员可在短于生命周期的时间尺度上针对特定任务实现特化。其中，真社会性蜜蜂（Eusocial bees）需采集花粉与花蜜以维持种群生存，但多数工蜂在其生命周期中似乎会同时采集两类觅食奖励。本研究首先探究了熊蜂（Bumblebees）是否会在短于生命周期的时间尺度上出现觅食奖励特化；同时探索了调控此类特化模式的影响因素，并解答了“特化采集某类奖励的觅食蜂是否比泛化采集者完成更多觅食趟次”这一问题。具体而言，我们对单个蜂群中所有觅食蜂的触角形态（antennal morphology）与体型大小进行了测定，并借助射频识别（radio frequency identification, RFID）技术获取每只觅食蜂完整的觅食历史，将上述形态特征与每只蜂的完整觅食史进行关联分析。结果显示，仅有极小比例的觅食蜂为终身特化者；然而，超过50%的觅食蜂会在单日特化采集某一类奖励。与预期相悖的是，单日与终身的奖励特化者并未表现出更优异的觅食能力——它们既未体型更大，也未完成更多觅食趟次。体型更大且触角嗅觉感器（olfactory sensilla）更多的蜂会完成更多觅食趟次，但并未表现出更强的特化倾向。我们讨论了熊蜂蜂群短期与长期任务特化模式的成因与功能。