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Odor discrimination in classical conditioning of proboscis extension in two stingless bee species in comparison to Africanized honeybees

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Abstract

Learning in insects has been extensively studied using different experimental approaches. One of them, the proboscis extension response (PER) paradigm, is particularly well suited for quantitative studies of cognitive abilities of honeybees under controlled conditions. The goal of this study was to analyze the capability of three eusocial bee species to be olfactory conditioned in the PER paradigm. We worked with two Brazilian stingless bees species, Melipona quadrifasciata and Scaptotrigona aff. depilis, and with the invasive Africanized honeybee, Apis mellifera. These three species present very different recruitment strategies, which could be related with different odor-learning abilities. We evaluated their gustatory responsiveness and learning capability to discriminate floral odors. Gustatory responsiveness was similar for the three species, although S. aff. depilis workers showed fluctuations along the experimental period. Results for the learning assays revealed that M. quadrifasciata workers can be conditioned to discriminate floral odors in a classical differential conditioning protocol and that this discrimination is maintained 15 min after training. During conditioning, Africanized honeybees presented the highest discrimination, for M. quadrifasciata it was intermediate, and S. aff. depilis bees presented no discrimination. The differences found are discussed considering the putative different learning abilities and procedure effect for each species.

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Acknowledgments

We specially want to thank Adelino Penatti for his daily help and technical assistance. We are also grateful to two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments. This study was supported by funds from ANPCYT (01-12319), University of Buenos Aires (X 036) and CONICET (02049), to W. M. Farina and by a CAPES-SECyT international exchange grant (071/04). We declare that our experiments comply with the current laws of the country in which they were performed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Grupo de Estudio de Insectos Sociales, Departamento de Biodiversidad y Biología Experimental, IFIBYNE-CONICET. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Pabellón II, Ciudad Universitaria, (C1428EHA), Buenos Aires, Argentina

    S. I. Mc Cabe & W. M. Farina

  2. Departamento de Biologia Celular e Molecular e Bioagentes Patogênicos, Faculdade de Medicina de Ribeirão Preto, Universidade de São Paulo, Av. Bandeirantes 3900, CEP 14049-900, Ribeirão Preto, SP, Brazil

    K. Hartfelder

  3. Departamento de Biologia, Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto, Universidade de São Paulo, Av. Bandeirantes 3900, CEP 14040-901, Ribeirão Preto, SP, Brazil

    W. C. Santana

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  1. S. I. Mc Cabe
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Correspondence to W. M. Farina.

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Mc Cabe, S.I., Hartfelder, K., Santana, W.C. et al. Odor discrimination in classical conditioning of proboscis extension in two stingless bee species in comparison to Africanized honeybees. J Comp Physiol A 193, 1089–1099 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-007-0260-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-007-0260-8

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