Mapping sleeping bees within their nest: spatial and temporal analysis of worker honey bee sleep.

ABSTRACT: Patterns of behavior within societies have long been visualized and interpreted using maps. Mapping the occurrence of sleep across individuals within a society could offer clues as to functional aspects of sleep. In spite of this, a detailed spatial analysis of sleep has never been conducted on an invertebrate society. We introduce the concept of mapping sleep across an insect society, and provide an empirical example, mapping sleep patterns within colonies of European honey bees (Apis mellifera L.). Honey bees face variables such as temperature and position of resources within their colony's nest that may impact their sleep. We mapped sleep behavior and temperature of worker bees and produced maps of their nest's comb contents as the colony grew and contents changed. By following marked b

SUBMITTER: Klein BA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4100802 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature