Sound recordings of Apis cerana japonica colonies over 24 h reveal unique daily hissing patterns

The simultaneous wing movement by multiple worker bees in a colony produces a hissing sound, which is a novel acoustic and vibrational signal of the honey bees. Hissing of honey bees is thought to be a response to direct, threatening stimuli. However, we discovered Japanese honey bees ( Apis cerana...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Apidologie 2019-04, Vol.50 (2), p.204-214
Main Authors: Kawakita, Satoshi, Ichikawa, Kotaro, Sakamoto, Fumio, Moriya, Kazuyuki
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Apis cerana japonica
Apis mellifera
Bees
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Cameras
Colonies
Entomology
Environmental factors
Hiss
Life Sciences
Original Article
Solar radiation
Sound recordings
Sunrise
Sunset
Vibratory communication
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Summary:The simultaneous wing movement by multiple worker bees in a colony produces a hissing sound, which is a novel acoustic and vibrational signal of the honey bees. Hissing of honey bees is thought to be a response to direct, threatening stimuli. However, we discovered Japanese honey bees ( Apis cerana japonica ) can hiss even without obvious disturbances in previous study. In this study, to understand the temporal characteristics of honey bee hissing, we conducted 24-h sound recordings over 7 months in 2015 and investigated when A. cerana japonica hissed every day. Additionally, we also investigated the relationship of hissing onset and offset times with sunrise and sunset times, and environmental factors. We found that honey bees hiss daily during daytime and most frequently at dawn, with hissing onset/offset occurring mostly within 30 min of sunrise/sunset time. Hissing onset and offset were significantly related to sunrise and sunset times, respectively, and also to solar radiation intensity. The findings reveal that A. cerana japonica hissing has unique temporal patterns, and also shed a new light on vibrational collective behavior in honey bees.
ISSN:0044-8435
1297-9678
DOI:10.1007/s13592-018-0631-x