“Could ball rolling be the result of bees clearing clutter? Object relocation, such as the removal of dead adults and larvae from the nest or movement of debris

“Could ball rolling be the result of bees clearing clutter? Object relocation, such as the removal of dead adults and larvae from the nest or movement of debris within the nest, is naturally performed by bumble bees (Munday & Brown, 2018). Therefore, it may be that ball rolling was a result of bees attempting to remove objects from what they considered their hive space. However, balls were located well outside the nest and in sequestered areas which provided a direct decluttered path from the nest to the food sources. […]” “[….] While ball rolling, bees partially enveloped the ball, which may resemble positions taken when attempting to mate or sting when defending their nest or in an agitated state. However, we observed no instances of genitalia eversion by males (Amin et al., 2012; Djegham et al., 1994), defensive buzzing (Pritchard & Vallejo-Marín, 2020) or stinger extension by females while in contact with the balls. Therefore, the motor patterns involved in ball rolling are structurally different from more adaptive activities in bumble bees' normal repertoire.” -- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0003347222002366 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S000334722... (linked from TFA)