Odour and colour information in the foraging choice behaviour of the honeybee

1. Honeybees Apis mellifera ligustica were trained to work on a patch with artificial rewarding and non-rewarding flowers, coupled to an air extractor. The perceptual colour distance between the rewarding and the non-rewarding flowers was varied and the flower choice and the repellent scent-marking...

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Autores principales: Giurfa, Martín, Núñez, Josué Antonio
Publicado: 1994
Materias:
Colour vision
Efficiency
Foraging
Honeybees
Scent marking
Acceso en línea:https://bibliotecadigital.exactas.uba.ar/collection/paper/document/paper_03407594_v175_n6_p773_Giurfa
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12110/paper_03407594_v175_n6_p773_Giurfa
Aporte de:
Biblioteca Digital - Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales (UBA) de Universidad de Buenos Aires
id paper:paper_03407594_v175_n6_p773_Giurfa
record_format dspace
spelling paper:paper_03407594_v175_n6_p773_Giurfa2023-06-08T15:34:12Z Odour and colour information in the foraging choice behaviour of the honeybee Giurfa, Martín Núñez, Josué Antonio Colour vision Efficiency Foraging Honeybees Scent marking 1. Honeybees Apis mellifera ligustica were trained to work on a patch with artificial rewarding and non-rewarding flowers, coupled to an air extractor. The perceptual colour distance between the rewarding and the non-rewarding flowers was varied and the flower choice and the repellent scent-marking behaviour of the bees were recorded. 2. The discrimination between rewarding and non-rewarding flowers depended on their colour distance, improving with a greater colour difference. This task was guided thus visually and was not affected by activating the air extractor. 3. The scent-marking activity was only observable when the colour information of both groups of flowers was the same or very similar. This thus represents the first reported case of a modulation of an olfactory activity through the visual input provided by colour distances. When the air extractor was activated, rejections associated with the scent-marking behaviour disappeared, thus confirming the olfactory nature of this behaviour. 4. Honeybees are thus capable of using one or more sensory cues to enhance their foraging efficiency, according to the environmental situation. This great plasticity allows them to attain an enhanced efficiency while foraging. 5. We successfully applied the model of colour choice behaviour of the honeybee. Since the original theory was developed for Apis mellifera carnica, this work also constitutes the first attempt to describe the behaviour of the honeybee race, Apis mellifera ligustica, using the postulated model, and reaffirms thus its generality. © 1994 Springer-Verlag. Fil:Giurfa, M. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; Argentina. Fil:Núñez, J. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; Argentina. 1994 https://bibliotecadigital.exactas.uba.ar/collection/paper/document/paper_03407594_v175_n6_p773_Giurfa http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12110/paper_03407594_v175_n6_p773_Giurfa
institution Universidad de Buenos Aires
institution_str I-28
repository_str R-134
collection Biblioteca Digital - Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales (UBA)
topic Colour vision
Efficiency
Foraging
Honeybees
Scent marking
spellingShingle Colour vision
Efficiency
Foraging
Honeybees
Scent marking
Giurfa, Martín
Núñez, Josué Antonio
Odour and colour information in the foraging choice behaviour of the honeybee
topic_facet Colour vision
Efficiency
Foraging
Honeybees
Scent marking
description 1. Honeybees Apis mellifera ligustica were trained to work on a patch with artificial rewarding and non-rewarding flowers, coupled to an air extractor. The perceptual colour distance between the rewarding and the non-rewarding flowers was varied and the flower choice and the repellent scent-marking behaviour of the bees were recorded. 2. The discrimination between rewarding and non-rewarding flowers depended on their colour distance, improving with a greater colour difference. This task was guided thus visually and was not affected by activating the air extractor. 3. The scent-marking activity was only observable when the colour information of both groups of flowers was the same or very similar. This thus represents the first reported case of a modulation of an olfactory activity through the visual input provided by colour distances. When the air extractor was activated, rejections associated with the scent-marking behaviour disappeared, thus confirming the olfactory nature of this behaviour. 4. Honeybees are thus capable of using one or more sensory cues to enhance their foraging efficiency, according to the environmental situation. This great plasticity allows them to attain an enhanced efficiency while foraging. 5. We successfully applied the model of colour choice behaviour of the honeybee. Since the original theory was developed for Apis mellifera carnica, this work also constitutes the first attempt to describe the behaviour of the honeybee race, Apis mellifera ligustica, using the postulated model, and reaffirms thus its generality. © 1994 Springer-Verlag.
author Giurfa, Martín
Núñez, Josué Antonio
author_facet Giurfa, Martín
Núñez, Josué Antonio
author_sort Giurfa, Martín
title Odour and colour information in the foraging choice behaviour of the honeybee
title_short Odour and colour information in the foraging choice behaviour of the honeybee
title_full Odour and colour information in the foraging choice behaviour of the honeybee
title_fullStr Odour and colour information in the foraging choice behaviour of the honeybee
title_full_unstemmed Odour and colour information in the foraging choice behaviour of the honeybee
title_sort odour and colour information in the foraging choice behaviour of the honeybee
publishDate 1994
url https://bibliotecadigital.exactas.uba.ar/collection/paper/document/paper_03407594_v175_n6_p773_Giurfa
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12110/paper_03407594_v175_n6_p773_Giurfa
work_keys_str_mv AT giurfamartin odourandcolourinformationintheforagingchoicebehaviourofthehoneybee
AT nunezjosueantonio odourandcolourinformationintheforagingchoicebehaviourofthehoneybee
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