INVESTIGADORES
FARINA Walter Marcelo
artículos
Título:
Honeybees learn floral odors while receiving nectar from foragers within the hive
Autor/es:
FARINA, WALTER M; GRÜTER, CHRISTOPH; ACOSTA, LUIS; MC CABE, SOFIA
Revista:
NATURWISSENSCHAFTEN
Editorial:
Springer
Referencias:
Lugar: Berlin; Año: 2007 p. 55 - 60
ISSN:
0028-1042
Resumen:
Recent studies showed that nectar odors brought
back by honeybee foragers can be learned associatively
inside the hive. In the present study, we focused on the
learning abilities of bees, which directly interact via
trophallaxis with the incoming nectar foragers: the workers
that perform nectar-receiving tasks inside the hive. Workers
that have received food directly from foragers coming back
from a feeder offering either unscented or scented sugar
solution [phenylacetaldehyde (PHE) or nonanal diluted]
were captured from two observational hives, and their
olfactory memories were tested using the proboscis extension
response paradigm. Bees that have received scented
solution from incoming foragers showed significantly
increased response frequencies for the corresponding
solution odor in comparison with those that have received
unscented solution. No differences in the response frequencies
were found between food odors and colonies. The
results indicate that first-order receivers learn via trophallaxis
the association between the scent and the sugar
solution transferred by incoming foragers. The implications
of these results should be considered at three levels: the
operational cohesion of bees involved in foraging-related
tasks, the information propagation inside the hive related to
the floral type exploited, and the putative effect of these
memories on future preferences for resources.