Floral choices by honeybees in relation to the relative distances to flowers

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Honeybees ( Apis mellifera L.) were presented with a series of binary choices between two equally rewarding yellow or blue artificial flowers. When flowers were placed equidistant from each other, the bees maintained high degrees of constancy to one flower colour. When flowers were spaced unequally, the bees most often chose to visit the closest flower, as is predicted by an optimal foraging model.