Community formation increases social efficiency of collective fanning behavior in the European honeybee (Apis mellifera)

Collective behavior increases a species ability to respond to and buffer against a changing environment. In social groups, communication is critical as information transfer facilitates rapid, complex, and coordinated actions that exceed individual ability. In the European honeybee (Apis mellifera), interactions across the community is crucial for conducting tasks that support colony function and health. Additionally, the social environment impacts the performance of collective tasks, particularly in the critical thermoregulatory behavior known as fanning. Collective fanning maintains the internal colony temperature, and deviations outside this optimal range can have severe consequences on brood viability and long-term health ultimately compromising the colony’s long-term stability and success. To understand how the social environment changes fanning behavioral outcomes, we analyzed the interaction dynamics under increasing temperature conditions across varying group size. Using social network analysis, we determined that network structure changes with group size. As community size increases, honeybees are more likely to split into smaller sub-communities to facilitate more efficient environmental information transfer. Furthermore, when large groups of individuals do not split into sub-communities, they perform more individual interactions in coordinating a fanning response. These findings indicate that honeybees employ flexible coordination strategies dependent on community size. Additionally, dividing into sub-communities greatly increases the efficiency of information transfer and behavior coordination. This research underscores the importance of social structure in shaping collective behavior and provides insight into how eusocial insects use dynamic behavioral strategies in responding to environmental change.