Avoidance response to low-quality pollen in foraging honeybees

ROCÍO LAJAD; ANDRÉS ARENAS

Stellenbosch

Congreso; 36th Annual Meeting of the International Society of Chemical Ecology; 2021

International Society of Chemical Ecology

Deterrent substances present in food, like toxic and/or bitter compounds, can exertrepelling responses. Pollen, the main protein resource for Apis mellifera, may presentcompounds that induce distasteful and/or malaise experiences. Although honeybeecolonies avoid collecting some low-quality pollens, evidence supports that foragersthemselves are not able to make foraging decisions based on pollen composition at thefood sources. We hypothesize that assessment occurs after pollen is processed inside thenest, likely mediated by young bees. To unveil the mechanisms that enable foragers toavoid low-quality pollens, we performed dual-choice experiments with flying beesconfined in cages (9x3x2m). We compared foragers´ preferences for two monofloralpollen sources before and after one of them was adulterated with amygdalin. The adulterated pollen was offered either: i) to all the bees inside the hive; ii) to foragers at the pollen source or iii) to young bees transiently isolated from the colony during the treatment. Controls with unadulterated pollens were included. Foragers significantly reduced their preferences for pollens that had been experienced as adulterated inside the hive (i). Interestingly, they could not avoid the adulterated pollen experienced directly at the food source (ii), but they did after the pollen was incorporated into the nest.Experienced young bees could not modify responses of inexperienced foragers (iii).Altogether, results suggest that pollen assessment requires the resource to be processedin the colony and rule out that experienced young bees alone could bias foragingpreferences.