IFIBYNE   05513
INSTITUTO DE FISIOLOGIA, BIOLOGIA MOLECULAR Y NEUROCIENCIAS
Unidad Ejecutora - UE
artículos
Título:
Propagation of olfactory information within the honeybee hive.
Autor/es:
GRÜTER, CHRISTOPH; ACOSTA, LUIS; FARINA, WALTER M
Revista:
BEHAVIORAL ECOLOGY AND SOCIOBIOLOGY
Editorial:
Springer
Referencias:
Lugar: New York; Año: 2006 p. 707 - 715
ISSN:
0340-5443
Resumen:
Transfer of information about food source
characteristics within insect societies is essential to colony-
foraging success. The food odor communicated within
honeybee hives has been shown to be important for food
source exploitation. When successful foragers return to the
nest and transfer the collected nectar to hive mates through
mouth-to-mouth contacts (trophallaxis), potential recruits
receiving these samples learn the food odor by associative
learning. The food then becomes rapidly distributed among
colony members, which is mainly a consequence of the
numerous trophallaxes between hive-mates of all ages
during food processing. We tested whether the distribution
of food among hive mates causes a propagation of olfactory
information within the hive. Using the proboscis extension
response paradigm, we show that large proportions of bees
of the age groups representing the main worker castes, 4 to
9-day-old bees (nurse-aged bees), 12 to 16-day-old bees
(food processor-aged bees), and actual foragers (about 17+
day old bees) associatively learn the food odor in the course
of processing food that has been collected by only a few
foragers. Results further suggest that the information is
shared more or less equally between bees of the three age
groups. This shows that olfactory information about the
flower species exploited by foragers is distributed within
the entire colony and is acquired by bees of all age groups,
which may influence many behaviors inside and outside
the hive.