Figure 1.
Monthly variation in honey bee foraging distance as determined from decoding 5097 waggle dances.
Foraging distance varies significantly with month. The communicated distances were greater in summers (July & August) than springs (March & April) or autumns (September & October). Letters (capital = year 1 and lower case = year 2) display post-hoc results, where months that share letters do not significantly differ. Box lines report medians and lower and upper quartiles, and whiskers extend to either maximum and minimum data points or to 1.5 times the interquartile range. Breaks in the x axis indicate winter, when there is little or no foraging. Colours per month are consistent between figures, with the exception of Figure 4 heatmap.
Figure 2.
Calculated foraging area (km2) at 90th and 50th percentiles of distances indicated by waggle dances.
Honey bees use an area approximately 22 times greater in the summer (August 2009 & July 2010) vs. spring (March 2010 & March 2011) and 6 times greater in summer vs. autumn (October 2009 & 2010). Breaks in the x-axis indicate winter, when there is little or no foraging. Colours per month are consistent between figures, with the exception of Figure 4 heatmap.
Figure 3.
Sugar content of nectar brought back to the hives by returning foragers.
Median sugar content is highest in May, September, and October and is lowest in March, April, and June to August. The third quartile is higher in spring than summer. Letters display post-hoc results, where months that share letters do not significantly differ. Statistics were done on transformed data, but the Figure displays the untransformed data. Box lines report medians and lower and upper quartiles, and whiskers extend to either maximum and minimum data points or to 1.5 times the interquartile range. Breaks in the x axis indicate winter, when there is little or no foraging. Colours per month are consistent between figures, with the exception of Figure 4 heatmap.
Figure 4.
Distribution and density of foraging locations as determined by waggle dances.
Each dance is simulated 1000 times to incorporate the error inherent in dance information. Colour denotes how many dances fall within 25×25 m bins. Black circles are 3 and 5 km from the hive locations (centre black dot). White circles indicate the areas corresponding to the 90th and 50th foraging distance percentiles. Foraging range, containing a diversity of urban and rural land-types, extends the furthest (A, D) during summer (August 2009, n = 439×1000 dances; July 2010, n = 340×1000 dances), less far (B, E) in autumn (October 2009, n = 401×1000 dances; October 2010, n = 231×1000 dances), and least far (C, F) in early spring (March 2010, n = 114×1000 dances; March 2011, n = 195×1000 dances) when flowers are readily available.