Could pre-imaginal olfactory experiences modify adult behavior in a social insect?

RAMIREZ GABRIELA P.; ARENAS ANDRES; FARINA WALTER M.

Albuquerque

Congreso; 49° Annual meeting of the “Animal Behavior Society”; 2012

In honeybee colonies the information of exploited resources is transferred among nest mates through trophallaxis. These social interactions also involve larvae as food recipients. We wondered if appetitive olfactory experiences that occur during pre-imaginal stages influence post-metamorphic odor-mediated responses. Therefore we tested learning performance and memory retention in adults of 3/5 days old that underwent a pre-imaginal experience. This was done by means of a scented-sucrose solution offered inside the hive and tested under the proboscis extension response (PER) paradigm. Results showed that precocious experiences increased PER levels toward the pre-exposed odor suggesting retention of information gained prior to the emergence. Interestingly, we also found high PER levels in adults tested to novel odors with perceptual similarities to the pre-exposed odor, which resembles generalization. Lastly, we found that even those bees that did not respond to the pre-exposed odor had an improved learning performance in a PER conditioning. Thus, pre-imaginal experiences may allow bees to assess food information very early in life with consequences on their adult learning abilities.