Temporal Memory in Foraging of the Stingless Bee Melipona subnitida (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Meliponini)

Abstract

Bees feed on nectar and pollen, however these resources are often available to floral visitors during restricted temporal windows. The presence of temporal memory is an advantage, as foragers can save energy by scheduling their flight activity to coincide with peaks of nectar secretion in the flowers or at times of higher sugar concentration in the nectar. Thus, the objectives of this study were (i) to investigate whether Melipona subnitida has temporal memory, and evaluate whether it becomes more accurate over the days, and (ii) to determine whether the behavior of anticipating the offered resource presents intra-individual consistency in the behavior of foragers. The visitation of the bees was high before and during the opening interval of the food resource, but rare after the closing, suggesting that M. subnitida has the ability to memorize the time of availability of the resource, increasing the accuracy over the days, with bees anticipating their visits in relation to the time they discovered the resource, and the opening time of the resource. There was individual consistency in the behavior of food-anticipatory activity, with the presence of bees that consistently anticipated in relation to the opening time of the resource (inspectors) and bees that consistently did not anticipate (reactivated forager) . By anticipating the search for a resource, foragers allow the group to exploit it effectively, as they exploit it in the first hours of its opening, and foragers that never anticipate avoid unnecessary risks of predation and energy expenditure.

Spatio-temporal learning in a mass-recruiting leaf-cutting ant (Acromyrmex subterraneus)

“…This may explain the low flow on the sucrose trail on the 22 nd day (Figure 3B). In Melipona subnitida bees there are foragers that do not anticipate avoiding unnecessary predation risks, exposure to high temperatures and low humidity (Silva et al, 2021). So, maybe, there is a trade-off between anticipating and gaining advantage on retrieving resources; and leaving the nest too early and face harsh foraging conditions and predators.…”

“…Linnaeus’ floral clock (Gardiner, 1987) demonstrates the adaptive value of anticipating floral opening patterns, crucial for finding resources under specific environmental conditions (Crystal, 2009). In fact, the ability to anticipate the search for periodically available resources is observed in several animals, including rats (Wall et al, 2019), birds (Tello-Ramos et al, 2015), bees (Murphy and Breed, 2008; SILVA et al , 2008; SILVA et al, 2021) and neotropical ants (Schatz et al, 1999). Anticipation improves performance in environmental challenges (Reznikova, 2007), allowing preparation for stimuli and increasing the chance of a successful response (Cipolla-Neto et al, 1988).…”