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Psyche 
[September-December 
Behaviors promoting colony spacing are another line of adapta- 
tions to limited food supplies and are widespread among the social 
insects (Brian 1965, Wilson 1971). For honey bees these behaviors 
fall logically into two classes: ( 1 ) attack by established colonies upon 
adjacent colonies, and (2) avoidance of established colonies by 
swarms when selecting nest sites. Behavior of the first category is 
apparently of minor importance with honey bees since bee colonies 
can be crowded into peaceful apiaries. However strong colonies 
occasionally plunder nearby weak colonies. Regarding the second 
category, Lindauer (1955) provides evidence suggesting that honey 
bee swarms avoid their parent colonies by selecting new nest sites 
at least a few hundred meters from the original nest. Given the 
importance of understanding colony spacing to a clear understand- 
ing of honey bee ecology, especially intraspecific foraging compe- 
tition, we decided to investigate the dispersal behavior of honey 
bee swarms. 
Materials and Methods 
The honey bees used in this study came from the Dyce Honey 
Bee Laboratory, Cornell University, and were hybrids of the Euro- 
pean races of honey bees imported for American apiculture. These 
races include primarily Apis mellifera ligustica Spinola, A. m. cau- 
casica Gorbatschew, A. m. carnica Pollmann and A. m. mellifera 
L. (Ruttner 1975). The study of swarm dispersal distance was con- 
ducted during the summers of 1976 and 1977 on Mount Pleasant, 
a large area of mature forest near Ithaca, New York. The test of 
swarms’ preferred dispersal distance was performed during Decem- 
ber, 1977 and January, 1978 at the Archbold Biological Station, 
Lake Placid, Florida. There the study area consisted of a sandy 
plain which extends for many kilometers and which is primarily 
covered by scrubby vegetation. The widely dispersed pine trees in 
this area offer very few, if any, natural nest sites for honey bees. 
Additional methodological details will be given with the descrip- 
tions of the individual experiments. 
Experiments and Results 
Distribution of Swarm Dispersal Distances 
Upon departing its parent colony, a honey bee swarm flies only 
a few tens of meters before assembling to form a hanging swarm 
