Honey bee queens (Apis mellifera) who mate with multiple males produce colonies that are filled with numerous genetically distinct patrilines of workers. A genetically diverse colony benefits from an enhanced foraging effort, fuelled in part by an increase in the number of recruitment signals that are produced by foragers. However, the influence of patriline diversity on the attention paid to these signals by audiences of potentially receptive workers remains unexplored. To determine whether recruitment dances performed by foragers in multiple-patriline colonies attract a greater number of dance followers than dances in colonies that lack patriline diversity, we trained workers from multiple- and single-patriline colonies to forage in a greenhouse and monitored their dance-following activity back in the hives. On average, more workers followed a dance if it was performed in a multiple-patriline colony rather than a single-patriline colony (33% increase), and for a greater number of dance circuits per follower. Furthermore, dance-following workers in multiple-patriline colonies were more likely to exit their hive after following a dance, although this did not translate to a difference in colony-level exit rates between treatment types. Recruiting nest mates to profitable food sources through dance communication is critical to a colony’s foraging success and long-term fitness; polyandrous queens produce colonies that benefit not only from increased recruitment signalling, but also from the generation of larger and more attentive audiences of signal receivers. This study highlights the importance of integrating responses of both signal senders and receivers to understand more fully the success of animal-communication systems.

中文翻译：

---

当蜜蜂群有多个父系时，招募舞蹈信号会吸引更多观众


与多个雄性交配的蜜蜂蜂王（Apis mellifera）产生的蜂群中充满了许多遗传上不同的父系工蜂。遗传多样性的群体受益于觅食努力的增强，部分原因是觅食者产生的招募信号数量的增加。然而，父系多样性对潜在接受性工人受众对这些信号的关注的影响仍有待探索。为了确定多父系群体中觅食者表演的招募舞蹈是否比缺乏父系多样性的群体中的舞蹈吸引了更多的舞蹈追随者，我们训练了来自多父系群体和单父系群体的工人在温室中觅食，并监测他们的舞蹈。跟随蜂巢内的活动。平均而言，如果舞蹈是在多父系群体中而不是单父系群体中进行，则更多工蚁会跟随该舞蹈（增加 33%），并且每个追随者循环跳舞的次数也较多。此外，多父系蜂群中的跟随舞蹈的工蜂更有可能在跳舞后离开蜂巢，尽管这并没有转化为治疗类型之间蜂群水平退出率的差异。通过舞蹈交流来招募巢友以获得有利可图的食物来源对于群体的觅食成功和长期健康至关重要；一妻多夫的蜂王所产生的蜂群不仅受益于增加的招募信号，而且还受益于信号接收器的更多和更专心的受众的产生。这项研究强调了整合信号发送者和接收者的响应对于更全面地了解动物通信系统的成功的重要性。