Honeybees modify gustatory responsiveness after receiving nectar from foragers within the hive |
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Authors: | Andrés Martinez Walter M Farina |
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Institution: | (1) Grupo de Estudio de Insectos Sociales, Departamento de Biodiversidad y Biología Experimental, IFIBYNE-CONICET, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Pabellón II, Ciudad Universitaria, Buenos Aires, C1428EHA, Argentina;(2) Present address: Division of Biology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Imperial College London, Silwood Park campus, Ascot, Berkshire, SL5 7PY, UK |
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Abstract: | Food quality is a relevant characteristic to be transferred within eusocial insect colonies because its evaluation improves
the collective foraging efficiency. In honeybees, colony mates could directly acquire this resource characteristic during
trophallactic encounters with nectar foragers. In the present study, we focused on the gustatory responsiveness of bees that
have unloaded food from incoming foragers. The sugar sensitivity of receiver bees was assessed in the laboratory by using
the proboscis extension response paradigm. After unloading, hive bees were captured either from a colony that foraged freely
in the environmental surroundings or from a colony that foraged at an artificial feeder with a known sucrose solution. In
the first situation, the sugar sensitivity of the hive bees negatively correlated with the sugar concentration of the nectar
crops brought back by forager mates. Similarly, in the controlled situation, the highest sucrose concentration the receivers
accepted during trophallaxis corresponded to the highest thresholds to sucrose. The results indicate that first-order receivers
modify their sugar sensitivity according to the quality of the food previously transferred through trophallaxis by the incoming
foragers. In addition, trophallaxis is a mechanism capable of transferring gustatory information in honeybees. Its implications
at a social scale might involve changes in the social information as well as in nectar distribution within the colony. |
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Keywords: | Apis mellifera Honeybee Sugar response Communication Trophallaxis |
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