Dance floor clustering: food-anticipatory behavior in persistent and reticent honey bee foragers

Much has been learned in recent years about the honey bee time memory and foraging behavior. Receiving scant attention, however, is the phenomenon of forager bees gathering near the hive entrance, anticipating the time of day when previously productive food sources become available. We show that both persistent and reticent bees (foragers that do and do not investigate the source, respectively) congregate on the waggle dance floor at the appropriate time of day, but, in the absence of food at the source, persistent bees continue to show this behavior a day or two longer than reticent bees do. We also show that experience with the source influences the decision to become persistent or reticent. Our results reveal how foraging experience influences the individual bee's decision making, thereby providing insights into how foragers are reallocated efficiently among different resources in the environment.