286 
Psyche 
[Vol. 89 
Table 1. Number of visits by all bees to color-coded nests 
Nest Color-Code 
YB 
OY 
YO GO BG YBY Y OBO O OB BY 
YG 
B GB 
OG 
BOY 
No. of 
visits 
8 
15 
4 7 11 804282 
0 
7 4 
3 
0 
Table 2. Number of visits made by marked bees to particular nests. 
Marked 
bee 
Nest Categories 
1° 
2° 
3° 4° 5° 6° 
7° 8° 9° 10° 11° 
12° Total visits 
YB 
3 
2 
2 2 2 2 
1* 1 1 1 1 
1 19 
OY 
6* 
4 
2 111 
1111 
19 
YO 
2* 
2 
2 111 
1 1 
11 
GO 
5 
1 
1 1 1 
8 
BG 
5* 
5 
Y 
1 
1 
1 
3 
YBY 
3* 
3 
OB 
3* 
3 
OBO 
2 
2 
O 
1 
1 
2 
BY*,YG 
Each visited one nest once. 
♦Asterisked entries indicate that the visits were made to the nest from which the bee 
was originally captured. 
visits of 1 minute or less were likely to have been exploratory rather 
than “working” visits. Of a total of 69 timed visits, 30 (43%) were in 
the “exploratory” category. The average duration of the remaining 
39 “working” visits was 18.1 minutes (S = 26.36) (Fig. 8). 
The duration of foraging trips of 4 of the marked bees was noted 
by timing of their absences from the nest area. Whether or not they 
returned with pollen was not noted. Absences ranged from 19-42 
minutes, the average being 30.4 minutes (n = 11, s = 13.79). It 
seemed that bees returned from foraging trips in distinct pulses of 
several bees at a time. The foodplants are not known. 
This preliminary data on the movements of marked bees to differ- 
ent nests generates several hypotheses for further testing. 
1) Multiple nest entering is part of searching behavior for a female’s 
own nest. 
