Matina Donaldson-Matasci

Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
matina@email.arizona.edu
Mailing address: P.O. Box 210088, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721-0088

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Research Interests

Honeybees are famous for their unique "waggle dance", which they use to communicate with nest mates about the location of high-quality floral resources. Previous research has shown that the importance of this communication system is highly dependent on the habitat and the season; it is more important in tropical climes than temperate ones, and more important in winter than in summer. What is it about these different habitats that makes communication particularly important, and how?

In my research project, I plan to use a combination of theoretical modeling and field experiments to explore how the distribution of flowers in the environment affects the importance of communicating about their location. Is communication most important when flowers are scarce or abundant; when they are evenly dispersed, or occur in patches; when there are many different kinds of flowers, or just a few? In natural habitats where communication is especially valuable, is it because the information that individuals are collecting about the environment is particularly important; is it because communication is particularly effective; or is it because the colony's collective response to that information is particularly efficient? The answers to these questions will shed light on the ecological conditions that could have favored the evolution of the honeybee dance language.