Measurement of consummatory behavior in honey bees

Abstract

Consummatory behavior in honey bees can be measured by recording contact of the proboscis with sucrose solution in the food cup of an automatic feeder, and the behavior can be instrumentalized by arranging for contact of the proboscis with the food cup to activate the feeder. Illustrative free-operant and discrete-trials data are presented.

Experimental access to associative learning in honeybees

“…Opfinger (1931) (Grossmann, 1973;Sigurdson 1981Sigurdson a, 1981bBitterman, 1988 (Grossmann, 1973, Sigurdson, 1981a, 1981bBitterman, 1988). Thus, phenomena such as resistance to extinction, the overlearning-extinction effect, successive negative incentive contrast, conditioned inhibition and within-compound associations were found to parallel the results in the vertebrate literature (Bitterman, 1988 (Greggers, 1989;Greggers and Menzel, 1993).…”

From foraging to operant conditioning: A new computer-controlled Skinner box to study free-flying nectar gathering behavior in bees

“…Our apparatus differs from the Grossmann (1973) and Sigurdson (1981aSigurdson ( , 1981b devices in several respects. These devices implemented the experimental procedure from hardware and not from software.…”

“…Some authors reinforced proboscis extension either with infrared, capacitive or oscillator-frequency detection (Sigurdson, 1981b;Schmitt and Bertsch, 1990;Fulop and Menzel, 2000;Boisvert and Sherry, 2006). In this case, the energetic cost of the response is very low and, consequently, high response rates were observed.…”

Automated behavioral experiments with individually marked bees

“…Bees are fast flyers and approach a target in quick turns and advances. When they have landed on a target, their dipping into a hole can be detected by a photocell (Grossmann, 1973;Sigurdson, 1981), or their contact with the substrate can be detected by a capacitance device (Sigurdson, 1981). But these automated procedures have limitations in that (l) bees cannot be detected during flight, and (2) the identification of individual subjects is made by the experimenter.…”