The interaction of temperature and sucrose concentration on foraging preferences in bumblebees

Whitney, Heather M.; Dyer, Adrian G.; Chittka, Lars; Rands, Sean A.; Glover, Beverley J.

doi:10.1007/s00114-008-0393-9

Cited by 85 publications

(99 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…Bombus terrestris is known to discriminate between flowers differing in temperature, scent composition, and nectar sugar concentration and composition (Dyer et al 2006, Whitney et al 2008, Suchet et al 2011. Captive and wild bumble bees in our study thus could have relied for yeast detection on some cue correlated with presence of yeasts in nectar, such as increased temperature, volatile emissions, yeast metabolites (e.g., ethanol), taste alterations, or sugar and amino acids profiles , Canto et al 2011).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Yeasts in nectar of an early‐blooming herb: sought by bumble bees, detrimental to plant fecundity

Herrera

Pozo

Medrano

2013

Ecology

148

165

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Through their effects on physicochemical features of floral nectar, nectar‐dwelling yeasts can alter pollinator behavior, but the effect of such changes on pollination success and plant reproduction is unknown. We present results of experiments testing the effects of nectar yeasts on foraging patterns of captive and free‐ranging bumble bees, and also on pollination success and fecundity of the early‐blooming, bumble bee‐pollinated Helleborus foetidus (Ranunculaceae). Under controlled experimental conditions, inexperienced Bombus terrestris workers responded positively to the presence of yeasts in artificial sugar solutions mimicking floral nectar by visiting proportionally more yeast‐containing artificial flowers. Free‐ranging bumble bees also preferred yeast‐containing nectar in the field. Experiments conducted in two different years consistently showed that natural and artificial nectars containing yeasts were more thoroughly removed than nectars without yeasts. Experimental yeast inoculation of the nectar of H. foetidus flowers was significantly associated with reductions in number of pollen tubes in the style, fruit set, seed set, and mass of individual seeds produced. These results provide the first direct evidence to date that nectar yeasts can modify pollinator foraging patterns, pollination success, and the quantity and quality of seeds produced by insect‐pollinated plants.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Yeasts in nectar of an early‐blooming herb: sought by bumble bees, detrimental to plant fecundity

Herrera

Pozo

Medrano

2013

Ecology

148

165

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“…That they process warmth and sucrose concentration independently has nicely been demonstrated by their ability to use lower temperature as a cue to higher rewards [27]. Using Table 2.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Honeybees prefer warmer nectar and less viscous nectar, regardless of sugar concentration

et al. 2013

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The internal temperature of flowers may be higher than air temperature, and warmer nectar could offer energetic advantages for honeybee thermoregulation, as well as being easier to drink owing to its lower viscosity. We investigated the responses of Apis mellifera scutellata (10 colonies) to warmed 10% w/w sucrose solutions, maintained at 20-358C, independent of low air temperatures, and to 20% w/w sucrose solutions with the viscosity increased by the addition of the inert polysaccharide Tylose (up to the equivalent of 34.5% sucrose). Honeybee crop loads increased with nectar temperature, as did the total consumption of sucrose solutions over 2 h by all bees visiting the feeders. In addition, the preference of marked honeybees shifted towards higher nectar temperatures with successive feeder visits. Crop loads were inversely proportional to the viscosity of the artificial nectar, as was the total consumption of sucrose solutions over 2 h. Marked honeybees avoided higher nectar viscosities with successive feeder visits. Bees thus showed strong preferences for both warmer and less viscous nectar, independent of changes in its sugar concentration. Bees may benefit from foraging on nectars that are warmer than air temperature for two reasons that are not mutually exclusive: reduced thermoregulatory costs and faster ingestion times due to the lower viscosity.

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“…For example, bees optimize foraging efforts by assessing a variable floral market and learning and remembering the stimuli that characterize more profitable flowers, which are preferentially visited (Menzel, 1985). Floral features used by bees include colors (Daumer, 1956;von Frisch, 1967;Menzel, 1985;Galizia et al, 2012), odors (von Frisch, 1967;Galizia et al, 2012;Giurfa and Sandoz, 2012), shapes (Gould, 1985), textures (Kevan and Lane, 1985;Erber et al, 1998), temperature (Whitney et al, 2008), and electrostatic charge (Clarke et al, 2013). Experimentally, perception of floral features can be quantified by conditioning of the proboscis (tongue) extension reflex (PER) of individually restrained bees that are unharmed but prevented from flight.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Color dependent learning in restrained Africanized honey bees

Jernigan

Roubik

Wcislo

et al. 2013

Journal of Experimental Biology

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Associative color learning has been demonstrated to be very poor using restrained European honey bees unless the antennae are amputated. Consequently, our understanding of proximate mechanisms in visual information processing is handicapped. Here we test learning performance of Africanized honey bees under restrained conditions with visual and olfactory stimulation using the proboscis extension response (PER) protocol. Restrained individuals were trained to learn an association between a color stimulus and a sugar-water reward. We evaluated performance for 'absolute' learning (learned association between a stimulus and a reward) and 'discriminant' learning (discrimination between two stimuli). Restrained Africanized honey bees (AHBs) readily learned the association of color stimulus for both blue and green LED stimuli in absolute and discriminatory learning tasks within seven presentations, but not with violet as the rewarded color. Additionally, 24-h memory improved considerably during the discrimination task, compared with absolute association (15-55%). We found that antennal amputation was unnecessary and reduced performance in AHBs. Thus color learning can now be studied using the PER protocol with intact AHBs. This finding opens the way towards investigating visual and multimodal learning with application of neural techniques commonly used in restrained honey bees.

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The interaction of temperature and sucrose concentration on foraging preferences in bumblebees

Cited by 85 publications

References 28 publications

Yeasts in nectar of an early‐blooming herb: sought by bumble bees, detrimental to plant fecundity

Yeasts in nectar of an early‐blooming herb: sought by bumble bees, detrimental to plant fecundity

Honeybees prefer warmer nectar and less viscous nectar, regardless of sugar concentration

Color dependent learning in restrained Africanized honey bees

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