INVESTIGADORES
D'ADAMO Paola
artículos
Título:
Cognitive plasticity in V. germanica wasps
Autor/es:
D'ADAMO, PAOLA; LOZADA, MARIANA
Revista:
JOURNAL OF INSECT SCIENCE
Editorial:
UNIV ARIZONA
Referencias:
Año: 2011 vol. 11 p. 1 - 11
ISSN:
1536-2442
Resumen:
Vespula germanica (F.) (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) is a highly invasive social wasp that exhibits a rich behavioral repertoire in which learning and memory play a fundamental role in foraging. The learning abilities of these wasps were analyzed while relocating a food source and whether V. germanica foragers are capable of discriminating between different orientation patterns and generalizing their choice to a new pattern. Foraging wasps were trained to associate two differentstripe orientation patterns with their respective food locations. Their response to a novel configuration that maintained the orientation of one of the learned patterns but differed in other aspects (e.g. width of stripes) was then evaluated. The results support the hypothesis that V. germanica wasps are able to associate a particular oriented pattern with the location of a feeder and to generalize their choice to a new pattern, which differed in quality, but presented the same orientation.