Honeybees learn floral odors while receiving nectar from foragers within the hive.

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State: Public
Version: author
Serval ID
serval:BIB_21488F1D113E
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Title
Honeybees learn floral odors while receiving nectar from foragers within the hive.
Journal
Naturwissenschaften
Author(s)
Farina W.M., Grüter C., Acosta L., Mc Cabe S.
ISSN
0028-1042 (Print)
ISSN-L
0028-1042
Publication state
Published
Issued date
2007
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
94
Number
1
Pages
55-60
Language
english
Abstract
Recent studies showed that nectar odors brought back by honeybee foragers can be learned associatively inside the hive. In the present study, we focused on the learning abilities of bees, which directly interact via trophallaxis with the incoming nectar foragers: the workers that perform nectar-receiving tasks inside the hive. Workers that have received food directly from foragers coming back from a feeder offering either unscented or scented sugar solution [phenylacetaldehyde (PHE) or nonanal diluted] were captured from two observational hives, and their olfactory memories were tested using the proboscis extension response paradigm. Bees that have received scented solution from incoming foragers showed significantly increased response frequencies for the corresponding solution odor in comparison with those that have received unscented solution. No differences in the response frequencies were found between food odors and colonies. The results indicate that first-order receivers learn via trophallaxis the association between the scent and the sugar solution transferred by incoming foragers. The implications of these results should be considered at three levels: the operational cohesion of bees involved in foraging-related tasks, the information propagation inside the hive related to the floral type exploited, and the putative effect of these memories on future preferences for resources.
Keywords
UI="D000821">Animal Feed, UI="D000818">Animals, UI="D001516">Bees/UI="Q000502">physiology, UI="D005247">Feeding Behavior, UI="D035264">Flowers, UI="D009812">Odors, UI="D012903">Smell/UI="Q000502">physiology, UI="D012919">Social Behavior
Pubmed
Create date
21/02/2014 11:46
Last modification date
20/08/2019 13:57
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