Abstract
Honeybees learn and discriminate excellently between different surface structures and different forms of objects, which they scan with their antennae. The sensory plate on the antennal tip plays a key role in the perception of mechanosensory and gustatory information. It is densely covered with small tactile hairs and carries a few large taste hairs. Both types of sensilla contain a mechanoreceptor, which is involved in the antennal scanning of an object. Our experiments test the roles of the mechanoreceptors on the antennal tip in tactile antennal learning and discrimination. Joints between head capsule and scapus and between scapus and pedicellus enable the bee to perform three-dimensional movements when they scan an object. The role of these joints in tactile antennal learning and discrimination is studied in separate experiments. The mechanoreceptors on the antennal tip were decisive for surface discrimination, but not for tactile acquisition or discrimination of shapes. When the scapus–pedicellus joint or the headcapsule–scapus joint was fixed on both antennae, tactile learning was still apparent but surface discrimination was abolished. Fixing both scapi to the head capsule reduced tactile acquisition.
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Abbreviations
- CS:
-
Conditioned stimulus
- PER:
-
Proboscis extension response
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Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Stephan S. Haupt and Joachim Haupt for helpful comments on earlier versions of this manuscript. This work was supported by a grant of the DFG (SFB 515) to J. Erber. The experiments described in this paper comply with the “Principles of animal care”, publication No. 86–23, revised 1985 of the National Institute of Health, and with the current German laws.
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Scheiner, R., Schnitt, S. & Erber, J. The functions of antennal mechanoreceptors and antennal joints in tactile discrimination of the honeybee (Apis mellifera L.). J Comp Physiol A 191, 857–864 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-005-0009-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-005-0009-1