Social insects rely on information from each other to perform many collective behaviors. In honeybees, information sharing occurs in a myriad of ways, including visual cues, dancing, vibration, and pheromones. Nasanov fanning is a key behavior for sharing information and colony coordination which involves releasing a pheromone from a specialized gland. This helps orient the colony prior to thermoregulatory fanning, which is a vital behavior, playing a key role in maintaining hive temperature and humidity. I sought to test how fanning behavior would differ in two light conditions: complete darkness and a control group using ambient lighting. I measured the number of thermoregulatory fanners at the first instance of fanning and at the maximum bout of fanning, along with the frequency of Nasanov fanning for each treatment group. The number of thermoregulatory fanners and the temperature at which they fanned during each light treatment group showed no statistically significant difference at the first instance or maximum bout of fanning. The probability of Nasanov fanners also showed no difference across treatment groups. Somehow, the bees are able to fan the same amount even with the absence of visual cues, enabling bees to maintain effective coordination and consistent thermoregulatory behavior across both light environments. These findings suggest that honeybees are capable of adapting to their environment to maintain critical collective behaviors like thermoregulation, even in the absence of expected environmental cues.
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