how individuals changing their own behavior in response to local information allow the colony to regulate its workforce

[GoldfishLord]

The entrance to a honeybee colony, often referred to as the dancefloor, is a market place for information about the state of the colony and the environment outside the hive. Studying interactions on the dancefloor provides us with a number of illustrative examples of how individuals changing their own behavior in response to local information allow the colony to regulate its workforce. For example, upon returning to their hive honeybees that have collected water search out a receiver bee to unload their water to within the hive. If this search time is short then the returning bee is more likely to perform a waggle dance to recruit others to the water source. Conversely, if this search time is long then the bee is more likely to give up collecting water. Since receiver bees will only accept water if they require it, either for themselves or to pass on to other bees and brood, this unloading time is correlated with the colony’s overall need of water. Thus the individual water forager’s response to unloading time (up or down) regulates water collection in response to the colony’s need.

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Is "changing" a gerund?

 

[Barque]

No.

A gerund is a verb acting as a noun. That line refers to individuals who are changing their behaviour. It's a verb, or a participle.

 

[Tarheel]

@GoldfishLord That's a very interesting article. Where did you find that?

 

[GoldfishLord]

https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9781400837106.173/pdf

the book Collective Animal Behavior
Published by Princeton University Press 2011

 

[tzfujimino]

Out of curiosity, did you think it was a gerund, GoldfishLord?

 

[GoldfishLord]

I was not sure, so I asked about it.

 

[tzfujimino]

Thank you, GoldfishLord.
You shouldn't worry too much about the -ing form.