Honey Bee Foraging Ecology: Optimal Diet, Minimal Uncertainty or Individual Constancy?

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Abstract
Experiments using honey bees and artificial flower patches were designed to test 3 alternative foraging ecology models: optimal diet, minimal uncertainty and individual constancy. Honey bee responses to a mixed color flower patch and to flower morph associated differences in reward quantity, quality and frequency were measured. Each honey bee visiting a patch of randomly distributed blue and yellow flowers was constant to 1 color, even though that behavior was suboptimal. When reward quantity was unequal between the 2 flower morphs each bee was constant to 1 color, even though that behavior often resulted in suboptimal reward. When reward quality was unequal between the 2 color morphs each bee was constant to 1 color, even though that behavior often resulted in suboptimal reward. When reward frequency was higher in 1 flower morph than in the other, each bee was constant to one color, even though that behavior often failed to maximize reward or minimize uncertainty. Although each of the experiments had the potential to refute the individual constancy model of honey bee foraging ecology, none did. Optimal diet and minimal uncertainty theories failed to predict honey bee foraging behavior and, under the conditions defined by our experiments, are refuted.