High bee traffic disrupts transfer of directional information in flying honeybee swarms

When honeybee, Apis mellifera, swarms lift off to fly to their new nest site, only a small proportion of individuals know the location of the new site, yet these few individuals must guide the entire swarm to the correct place. How do scouts transfer directional information to their swarm-mates? The vision hypothesis proposes that scout bees fly rapidly through swarms 'pointing' in the direction of travel. We examined the vision hypothesis by exposing flying swarms to a large number of fast-moving bees headed in the wrong direction. These bees mimicked scouts and created conflicting directional information. Swarms that were exposed to conflicting information from fast-moving bees showed clear evidence of disrupted guidance including splitting and failure to reach the nest box. We discuss the implications of our findings for hypotheses about the mechanisms of swarm guidance, and for our knowledge of how collectively moving groups deal with conflicting information. (C) 2009 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.