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Antennal sucrose perception in the honey bee (Apis mellifera L.): behaviour and electrophysiology

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Abstract

Physiological mechanisms of antennal sucrose perception in the honey bee were analysed using behavioural and electrophysiological methods. Following sucrose stimulation of the tip of a freely moving antenna, the latency of proboscis extension was 320–340 ms, 80–100 ms after the first activity in muscle M17 controlling this response. When bees were allowed to actively touch a sucrose droplet with one antenna, contacts with the solution were frequent with durations of 10–20 ms and average intervals between contacts of approximately 40 ms. High sucrose concentrations led to short and frequent contacts. The proboscis response and M17 activity were largely independent of stimulus duration and temporal pattern. Taste hairs of the antennal tip displayed spike responses to sucrose concentrations down to at least 0.1%. The first 25 ms of the response were suitable for discrimination of sucrose concentrations. This time interval corresponds to the duration of naturally occurring gustatory stimuli. Sucrose responses between different hairs on the same antenna showed a high degree of variability, ranging from less than five to over 40 spikes per 0.5 s for a stimulus of 0.1% sucrose. This variability of receptor responses extends the dynamic range of sucrose perception over a large range of concentrations.

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Acknowledgements

The author is grateful to M. de Bruyne and C. Kleineidam for discussions concerning sensilla, to S. Berger for help with some of the data analyses, to R. Scheiner for suggestions concerning the manuscript, and to J. Erber for support and extensive comments on various versions of the manuscript. This project was supported by the SFB 515 of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. Experiments were conducted in accordance with the laws concerning animals experiments of the Federal Republic of Germany.

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  1. Neurobiologie, Institut für Ökologie FR1-1, Technische Universität Berlin, Franklinstrasse 28/29, 10587, Berlin, Germany

    S. Shuichi Haupt

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Haupt, S.S. Antennal sucrose perception in the honey bee (Apis mellifera L.): behaviour and electrophysiology. J Comp Physiol A 190, 735–745 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-004-0532-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-004-0532-5

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