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Sensing the intruder: a quantitative threshold for recognition cues perception in honeybees

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Abstract

The ability to discriminate among nestmates and non-nestmate is essential to defend social insect colonies from intruders. Over the years, nestmate recognition has been extensively studied in the honeybee Apis mellifera; nevertheless, the quantitative perceptual aspects at the basis of the recognition system represent an unexplored subject in this species. To test the existence of a cuticular hydrocarbons’ quantitative perception threshold for nestmate recognition cues, we conducted behavioural assays by presenting different amounts of a foreign forager’s chemical profile to honeybees at the entrance of their colonies. We found an increase in the explorative and aggressive responses as the amount of cues increased based on a threshold mechanism, highlighting the importance of the quantitative perceptual features for the recognition processes in A. mellifera.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Dr. Duccio Pradella for his help in the field. The financial support was provided by the project PRIN 2008 (prot. 2008KZ82RE).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Biologia, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Via Madonna del Piano 6, 50019, Sesto Fiorentino, Florence, Italy

    Federico Cappa, Claudia Bruschini, Maria Cipollini & Rita Cervo

  2. Centro di servizi di Spettrometria di Massa (CISM), Università degli Studi di Firenze, Via U. Schiff 6, 50019, Sesto Fiorentino, Florence, Italy

    Giuseppe Pieraccini

Authors
  1. Federico Cappa
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  2. Claudia Bruschini
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  3. Maria Cipollini
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  4. Giuseppe Pieraccini
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  5. Rita Cervo
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Federico Cappa.

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Communicated by: Sven Thatje

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Cappa, F., Bruschini, C., Cipollini, M. et al. Sensing the intruder: a quantitative threshold for recognition cues perception in honeybees. Naturwissenschaften 101, 149–152 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-013-1135-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-013-1135-1

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