3 Neuroethology of Foraging Alive with color, a patch of flowers is also alive with the constant motion of bumblebees, honeybees, syrphid flies, and other pollinators. A bumblebee lands heavily on a flower, making other insects take flight. She turns, plunges her head into the corolla, and remains motionless. | Illllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll 3 Neuroethology of Foraging David F. Sherry and ohn B. Mitchell Prologue Alive with color a patch of flowers is also alive with the constant motion of bumblebees honeybees syrphid flies and other pollinators. A bumblebee lands heavily on a flower making other insects take flight. She turns plunges her head into the corolla and remains motionless. After a few seconds she backs out rises noisily into the air and joins the pollinators shuttling between flowers. Every one of these insects is making decisions about which flowers to visit how long to remain at each flower and how much nectar or pollen to take on board before flying off. This aerial traffic has a pattern that foraging theorists try to understand with models of energy maximization efficiency maximization and other currencies that they can build into a model and test. Underneath the rocketing flight from bloom to bloom is another hubbub invisible to us the flight of electrical and chemical signals through the pollinators nervous systems. Each decision each choice each arrival and departure emanates from unseen neural chatter taking place on a scale measured in microns and milliseconds. Electrical signals coursing along neurons carry messages about nectar concentration and the odor and color of flowers. Chemical signals jump the gap from one neuron to the next and relay this information to the bumblebee s brain. Inside neurons other chemical messengers jot notes on incoming data Illllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll 62 David F. Sherry and John B. Mitchell while gene transcription records a long-term archive of foraging experience changing the way the bumblebee s nervous system responds to incoming information. Her next search for a flower worth stopping at will use this information and her next foraging decision will
