Honeybees learn floral odors while receiving nectar from foragers within the hive |
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Authors: | Walter M Farina Christoph Grüter Luis Acosta Sofía Mc Cabe |
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Institution: | (1) Departamento de Biodiversidad y Biología Experimental, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Grupo de Estudio de Insectos Sociales, IFIBYNE-CONICET, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Pabellón II, Ciudad Universitaria (C1428EHA), Buenos Aires, Argentina;(2) Division of Behavioural Ecology, University of Bern, Ethologische Station Hasli, Wohlenstrasse 50a, 3032 Hinterkappelen, Switzerland |
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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. |
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Keywords: | Honeybees Floral odorants Foragers Phenylacetaldehyde Nonanal |
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