Energetically optimal foraging strategy is emergent property of time-keeping behavior in honey bees

Forager honey bees exhibit a robust time memory, based on an endogenous circadian clock, enabling them to schedule their flights to coincide with the nectar presentation of known food sources. They retain this time memory for several consecutive days even in the absence of nectar rewards. Recent work has identified 2 classes of forager: "persistent" foragers that reconnoiter a known food source to ascertain its status and "reticent" foragers that apparently wait in the hive for a waggle dance confirming source availability. Surprisingly, a foraging group contains 40–90% persistent foragers, depending on experience at the source. What is the benefit in sending so many foragers to investigate a source when only a few foragers are required to reactivate the entire group? We used an agent-based software model to test the energetics underlying several different ratios of persistent and reticent individuals in the foraging group while varying 6 ecological factors: forager group size, source distance, source sucrose concentration, source availability in hours, number of days the source is known to the colony, and the rate at which new unemployed foragers appear on the dance floor. Our model demonstrates 2 primary explanations. First, a large number of persistent foragers are needed to ensure that at least some foragers will reconnoiter their source early in its availability, thus enabling the group to effectively exploit the source. Second, the cost of a reconnaissance flight is negligible compared with even a single successful foraging trip.