Honey Bee Location- and Time-Linked Memory Use in Novel Foraging Situations: Floral Color Dependency

Abstract

Learning facilitates behavioral plasticity, leading to higher success rates when foraging. However, memory is of decreasing value with changes brought about by moving to novel resource locations or activity at different times of the day. These premises suggest a foraging model with location- and time-linked memory. Thus, each problem is novel, and selection should favor a maximum likelihood approach to achieve energy maximization results. Alternatively, information is potentially always applicable. This premise suggests a different foraging model, one where initial decisions should be based on previous learning regardless of the foraging site or time. Under this second model, no problem is considered novel, and selection should favor a Bayesian or pseudo-Bayesian approach to achieve energy maximization results. We tested these two models by offering honey bees a learning situation at one location in the morning, where nectar rewards differed between flower colors, and examined their behavior at a second location in the afternoon where rewards did not differ between flower colors. Both blue-yellow and blue-white dimorphic flower patches were used. Information learned in the morning was clearly used in the afternoon at a new foraging site. Memory was not location-time restricted in terms of use when visiting either flower color dimorphism.

Influence of environmental experience on aversive conditioning in honey bees (Apis mellifera L.)

“…Learned associations between color or odor cues and nectar rewards have a more prominent effect on the behavior of honey bees (Apis mellifera ) in new environmental contexts than was previously expected (e.g., Amaya-Márquez et al 2014). Honey bees have been shown to reliably respond to visual cues in the form of color variation in response to appetitive conditioning (Hori et al 2006), with some instances being observed of previous experience-altering performance on conditioning tasks (Menzel et al 1993).…”

“…Recently, it was demonstrated that the carryover of information learned was extended to illustrate a response over a delay of several hours between morning and afternoon (Amaya-Márquez et al 2014), through overnight (Chittka 1998;Cheng and Wignall 2006), and over a stretch of several days when bees have not visited a flower patch (Amaya-Márquez et al 2017). The fading of a memory was not a simple passive time-decay process as previously thought (Keasar et al 1996), but rather memory remained remarkably intact without exposure to new reward differences (Amaya-Márquez et al 2017).…”

“…The dynamic rapid learning exhibited in honey bee foragers would suggest that they approach new environments as novel situations. Nevertheless, memory carry-over appears to play a significant role in honey bee foraging behavior when approaching new situations (Chittka 1998;Cheng and Wignall 2006;Amaya-Márquez et al 2014. This memory anachronism was clear when bees exploited a new floral landscape in the afternoon at a different geographic location from where they foraged in the morning (Amaya-Márquez et al 2014).…”

“…Nevertheless, memory carry-over appears to play a significant role in honey bee foraging behavior when approaching new situations (Chittka 1998;Cheng and Wignall 2006;Amaya-Márquez et al 2014. This memory anachronism was clear when bees exploited a new floral landscape in the afternoon at a different geographic location from where they foraged in the morning (Amaya-Márquez et al 2014). Foragers still showed high fidelity to the flower offering the greater caloric reward in the morning patch even though flower shape, color, floral scent, time of day, and flower patch location were different from the morning flower patch.…”

Simple discrimination in stingless bees (Melipona quadrifasciata): Probing for select‐ and reject‐stimulus control

“…It is unclear why the bees behaved differently depending on the color of the S‐, but one reason may be the pre‐experimental history with slightly prevailing yellow flowers around the hive. Evidence consistent with this hypothesis was found in honey bees' ( Apis mellifera ) flower and patches biases tuned to color if these food sources had once been of greater feeding gain (Amaya‐Márquez, Abramson, & Wells, ; Amaya‐Márquez, Hill, Abramson, & Wells, ; Al Toufailia, Grüter, & Ratnieks, ). If the yellow flowers surrounding our hive were the richest to our bees, similar carry‐over effects of a prior history onto the experimental task would account for them having trouble to avoid yellow as a negative stimulus.…”