Modeling bee movement shows how a perceptual masking effect can influence flower discovery
Fig 5
Number of different flowers discovered by a group of bees as a function of flower density.
(A) Number of different flowers discovered in 100 exploration trips of 900 s, in an environment with randomly distributed flowers. Results are averaged over 80 simulations, keeping the environment stable for every simulation. Solid lines: Number calculated taking into account the masking effect (i.e., only counting the first flower that was discovered in each trip). Dotted lines: Results without taking into account the masking effect. (B) Same as A but for a given flower size (50 cm), and assuming that each bee will return to the nest only after having discovered a number of flowers (F) (note that box A corresponds to F = 1 for the simulations with masking effect, and F = ∞ for the simulations without masking effect). Line colors represent the maximum number of flowers discovered by each bee (F).