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.社会性昆虫的生态成功，通常被归因于工蜂间劳动分工所带来的任务表现优化。既往大量研究多聚焦于终身任务特化带来的性能提升，但蚁群成员可在更短的时间尺度上针对特定任务形成特化行为。真社会性蜜蜂需采集花粉与花蜜以维系种群生存，但多数工蜂在其生命周期中似乎会同时收集这两类奖励资源。本研究首先探究熊蜂是否会在短于其生命周期的时间尺度上形成觅食特化；同时我们还探索了调控此类行为模式的影响因素，并验证了奖励特化者是否较泛化觅食者完成了更多的觅食出行。具体而言，我们对单个蜂群内所有觅食者的触角形态与个体体型进行了全面测量，并结合通过射频识别（RFID）获取的每只觅食者完整觅食历史，将上述形态与体型特征与各觅食者的行为数据进行关联分析。研究结果显示，仅有极小比例的觅食者为终身特化者；然而超过50%的觅食者会在单日针对某一类奖励形成特化。与此前预期相悖的是，单日与终身奖励特化者并未展现出更优异的觅食能力——它们既未拥有更大的体型，也未完成更多的觅食出行。与之相对，体型更大且触角嗅觉感器数量更多的蜜蜂会完成更多的觅食出行，但并未表现出更强的特化程度。我们针对熊蜂蜂群短期与长期特化行为模式的成因与功能展开了讨论。