Abstract
The Eastern honeybee, Apis cerana, is indigenous to Asia and is an important pollinator for Asian ecosystems; the Western honeybee, Apis mellifera, has been introduced to Asia because of its high honey yields. These two species are now sympatric and share a similar environment. Whether learning in A. cerana can be studied using the proboscis extension response paradigm, as developed for A. mellifera, is still unexplored. Here, we investigate A. cerana’s associative olfactory learning with three different odors (hexanal, nonanal, and geraniol) and compared it with the learning performances of A. mellifera. After an acquisition phase, the bees were tested to determine whether they discriminated between the experienced odors (an odor paired with a reward during acquisition) from non-experienced odors (an odor not paired with a reward during acquisition). During the acquisition phase, A. mellifera showed higher learning scores than A. cerana. However, there was no statistical difference between the two species in the retention phase. Both species discriminated an experienced odor from a non-experienced odor. Our results suggested that A. cerana is equally amenable to the study of learning using the proboscis extension response paradigm supporting the behavioral evidence for future olfactory learning research with A. cerana.
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Acknowledgments
We respect all three anonymous reviewers’ very valuable comments and great help for the manuscript revision. We thank Michael J. Holmes for English polishing and comments. This work was supported by the China National Research Fund (31260585) and by the Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Science.
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Manuscript editor: Bernd Grünewald
Analyse comparative de l’apprentissage olfactif d’ Apis cerana et d’ Apis mellifera
Apis cerana / apprentissage / olfaction / REP / réflexe d’extension du proboscis
Vergleich des olfaktorischen Lernens von Apis cerana und Apis mellifera
Apis cerana / Apis mellifera / Duftlernen / Rüsselreflex
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Wang, Z., Tan, K. Comparative analysis of olfactory learning of Apis cerana and Apis mellifera . Apidologie 45, 45–52 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13592-013-0228-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13592-013-0228-3