Author:
Moreno Emilia,Arenas Andrés
Abstract
AbstractDivision of labor is central to the ecological success of social insects. Among foragers of the honey bee, specialization for collecting nectar or pollen correlates with their sensitivity to sucrose. So far, differences in gustatory perception have been mostly studied in bees returning to the hive, but not during foraging. Here, we showed that the phase of the foraging visit (i.e. beginning or end) interacts with foraging specialization (i.e. predisposition to collect pollen or nectar) to modulate sucrose and pollen sensitivity in foragers. In concordance with previous studies, pollen foragers presented higher sucrose responsiveness than nectar foragers at the end of the foraging visit. On the contrary, pollen foragers were less responsive than nectar foragers at the beginning of the visit. Consistently, free-flying foragers accepted less concentrated sucrose solution during pollen gathering than immediately after entering the hive. Pollen perception also changes throughout foraging, as pollen foragers captured at the beginning of the visit learned and retained memories better when they were conditioned with pollen + sucrose as reward than when we used sucrose alone. Altogether, our results support the idea that changes in foragers' perception throughout the foraging visit contributes to task specialization.
Funder
Agencia Nacional de Promoción Cientıfica y Tecnológica
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Cited by
10 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献