Question at position 13 Which of the following scenarios would most likely disrupt a honey bee's ability to effectively communicate through acoustic signals within the hive?The presence of strong gusts of wind outside the hiveStructural damage to the hive's wax combs, causing increased vibration dissipationA decrease in the forager population due to seasonal changesAn increase in the number of recruits dancing for the same food source

Question

BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

To determine which scenario would most likely disrupt a honey bee's ability to effectively communicate through acoustic signals within the hive, we need to consider how internal hive acoustics work.
Option 1: The presence of strong gusts of wind outside the hive. While external wind can influence overall hive conditions, the question focuses on acoustic communication inside the hive. External wind primarily affects the nest environment from the outside and is less likely to directly cause dissipation of internal vibration signals that bees use for communication.
Option 2: Structural damage to the hive's wax combs, causing increased vibration dissipation. This directly impacts the medium through which acoustic signals travel. If the wax combs are damaged, the efficiency and clarity of vibrational signals degrade, making communication (which relies on specific frequencies and vibrations) far less effective. This is a plausible and direct mechanism by which acoustic communication could be disrupted.
Option 3: A decrease in the forager population due to seasonal changes. Reduced forager numbers influence resource gathering and recruitment dynamics, but it does not inherently interfere with the physical transmission of acoustic signals inside the hive. The bees could still produce and transmit vibrations; there would just be fewer foragers to respond, which is a different layer of impact than signal transmission quality itself.
Option 4: An increase in the number of recruits dancing for the same food source. The waggle dance is primarily a spatial and social communication behavior inside the hive and on the comb surface, not an acoustic signal. While changes in recruitment could affect overall communication load, this option does not describe a factor that disrupts acoustic transmission within the hive.

In summary, among the options, structural damage to the wax combs causing increased vibration dissipation provides a direct, mechanical reason why internal acoustic signals would fail to transmit clearly, making it the most likely disruptor of acoustic hive communication.

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