The influence of gustatory and olfactory experiences on responsiveness to reward in the honeybee

RAMIREZ, GABRIELA; MARTINEZ ANDRES; FERNANDEZ, VANESA; CORTI BIELSA, GONZALO; WM FARINA

PLOS ONE

PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE

Lugar: San Francisco; Año: 2010 vol. 5 p. 1 - 2

1932-6203

Honeybees (Apis mellifera) exhibit an extraordinarily tuned division of labor that depends on age polyethism. This adjustment is generally associated with the fact that individuals of different ages display different response thresholds to given stimuli, which determine specific behaviors. For instance, the sucrose-response threshold (SRT) which largely depends on genetic factors may also be affected by the nectar sugar content. However, it remains unknown whether SRTs in workers of different ages and tasks can differ depending on gustatory and olfactory experiences.