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Honeybee cognition

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Animal Behaviour: Evolution and Mechanisms

Abstract

Behavioural research on honeybees has shown that bees are not the simple, hardwired creatures they were once believed to be. Bees display perceptual and ‘cognitive’ abilities that are rich, complex and flexible. In this chapter, we begin a review of these abilities with a brief introduction of the bee’s sensory equipment. Next, we describe several experimental approaches to bee behaviour. As this review is not intended to be exhaustive, we focus on behavioural experiments on free-flying honeybees. The studies described here investigate complex forms of learning and navigation, and mark important steps in understanding the processes underlying the bee’s remarkable behaviours.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. BEEgroup, Biocenter, Würzburg University, Würzburg, Germany

    Mario Pahl & Jürgen Tautz

  2. Visual Sciences Group, Research School of Biology, 2601, Canberra, ACT, Australia

    Shaowu Zhang

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  1. Mario Pahl
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  2. Jürgen Tautz
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  3. Shaowu Zhang
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. of Sociobiology/Anthropology & CRC Evolution of Social Behavior & German Primate Center, Behavioral Ecology & Sociobiology Unit, University of Göttingen, Kellnerweg 6, 37077, Göttingen, Germany

    Peter Kappeler

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Pahl, M., Tautz, J., Zhang, S. (2010). Honeybee cognition. In: Kappeler, P. (eds) Animal Behaviour: Evolution and Mechanisms. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-02624-9_4

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