Floral odor learning within the hive affects honeybees’ foraging decisions

Honeybees learn odor cues quickly and efficiently when visiting rewarding flowers. Memorization of these cues facilitates the localization and recognition of food sources during foraging flights. Bees can also use information gained inside the hive during social interactions with successful foragers. An important information cue that can be learned during these interactions is food odor. However, little is known about how floral odors learned in the hive affect later decisions of foragers in the field. We studied the effect of food scent on foraging preferences when this learning is acquired directly inside the hive. By using in-hive feeders that were removed 24 h before the test, we showed that foragers use the odor information acquired during a 3-day stimulation period with a scented solution during a food-choice situation outside the nest. This bias in food preference is maintained even 24 h after the replacement of all the hive combs. Thus, without being previously collected outside by foragers, food odors learned within the hive can be used during short-range foraging flights. Moreover, correct landings at a dual-choice device after replacing the storing combs suggests that long-term memories formed within the colony can be retrieved while bees search for food in the field.     

Trophallaxis in filled-crop honeybees (Apis mellifera L.): food-loading time affects unloading behaviour

 Honeybees ingested 50% w/w (1.8 M) sucrose solution at a rate feeder offering either 16.5, 32.5 or 65 μl/min. While the time spent ingesting solution at the feeder decreased significantly with increasing flow of solution, bees attained maximum crop loads with this range of flows. Different parameters related to mouth-to-mouth food exchange (trophallaxis) showed important modulations as the offered flow of solution was incremented. Trophallactic transfer rate, i.e. the speed at which liquid food is transferred from donor to recipient bee, was found to increase along with increasing profitability at the rate feeder. In the present case, food source profitability could have been evaluated by foragers either by measuring the time invested in ingesting the solution, or by direct assessment of the flow rate of the feeder. Thus it seems that perception of profitability conditions at the food sourcesuffices for later representation in the hive through trophallactic contacts, independently of crop-filling state. Received: 10 March 2000 / Accepted in revised form: 19 April 2000     

Calcitic-based stones protection by a low-fluorine modified methacrylic coating

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Atmospheric pollutants, such as NOx, SO2, and particulate matter, together with water percolation inside the stone pores, represent the main causes of...     

Effects of the green supply chain management practices on firm performance and sustainable development

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The idea of sustainable development and green supply chain management is considered at the underlying stage in the research and academic fields,...