Dataset Information

Reward quality influences the development of learned olfactory biases in honeybees.

ABSTRACT: Plants produce flowers with complex visual and olfactory signals, but we know relatively little about the way that signals such as floral scents have evolved. One important factor that may direct the evolution of floral signals is a pollinator's ability to learn. When animals learn to associate two similar signals with different outcomes, biases in their responses to new signals can be formed. Here, we investigated whether or not pollinators develop learned biases towards floral scents that depend on nectar reward quality by training restrained honeybees to learn to associate two similar odour signals with different outcomes using a classical conditioning assay. Honeybees developed learned biases towards odours as a result of differential conditioning, and the extent to which an olfactory bias could be produced depended upon the difference in the quality of the nectar rewards experienced during conditioning. Our results suggest that differences in reward quality offered by flowers influence odour recognition by pollinators, which in turn could influence the evolution of floral scents in natural populations of co-flowering plants.

SUBMITTER: Wright GA

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2686651 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Reward quality influences the development of learned olfactory biases in honeybees.

Wright Geraldine A GA Choudhary Amir F AF Bentley Michael A MA

Proceedings. Biological sciences 20090415 1667

Plants produce flowers with complex visual and olfactory signals, but we know relatively little about the way that signals such as floral scents have evolved. One important factor that may direct the evolution of floral signals is a pollinator's ability to learn. When animals learn to associate two similar signals with different outcomes, biases in their responses to new signals can be formed. Here, we investigated whether or not pollinators develop learned biases towards floral scents that depe ...[more]

PMID: 19369260

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Project description:Elongated landscape features like forest edges, rivers, roads or boundaries of fields are particularly salient landmarks for navigating animals. Here, we ask how honeybees learn such structures and how they are used during their homing flights after being released at an unexpected location (catch-and-release paradigm). The experiments were performed in two landscapes that differed with respect to their overall structure: a rather feature-less landscape, and one rich in close and far distant landmarks. We tested three different forms of learning: learning during orientation flights, learning during training to a feeding site, and learning during homing flights after release at an unexpected site within the explored area. We found that bees use elongated ground structures, e.g., a field boundary separating two pastures close to the hive (Experiment 1), an irrigation channel (Experiment 2), a hedgerow along which the bees were trained (Experiment 3), a gravel road close to the hive and the feeder (Experiment 4), a path along an irrigation channel with its vegetation close to the feeder (Experiment 5) and a gravel road along which bees performed their homing flights (Experiment 6). Discrimination and generalization between the learned linear landmarks and similar ones in the test area depend on their object properties (irrigation channel, gravel road, hedgerow) and their compass orientation. We conclude that elongated ground structures are embedded into multiple landscape features indicating that memory of these linear structures is one component of bee navigation. Elongated structures interact and compete with other references. Object identification is an important part of this process. The objects are characterized not only by their appearance but also by their alignment in the compass. Their salience is highest if both components are close to what had been learned. High similarity in appearance can compensate for (partial) compass misalignment, and vice versa.

Dataset Information

Reward quality influences the development of learned olfactory biases in honeybees.

Publications

Reward quality influences the development of learned olfactory biases in honeybees.

Similar Datasets

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