H. Wells et Rrs. Rathore, DISCRIMINANT CONDITIONING OF FORAGERS IN THE ASIAN HONEY-BEES APIS-CERANA AND A-DORSATA, Ecological entomology, 20(4), 1995, pp. 374-379
1. Nectivore foraging environments are typically modelled as choices a
mong non-fluctuating rewards, but in reality they often consist of int
ermittent daily nectar and pollen sources. Intermittent rewards create
two distinct foraging problems for colonial nectivores: re-recruitmen
t (periodically returning to intermittent rewards) and re-allocation (
finding new rewards). 2. The role of scent in learning and remembering
the locations of discontinuous nectar rewards was examined by testing
re-recruitment efficiency of Apis cerana and A. dorsata to reward-cor
related scents (odour discriminant self-conditioning). Experiments exa
mined the responses of non-naive foragers to an odour correlated with
prior reward, and to odours not correlated with prior rewards, by plac
ing different scents into a colony and observing the number of bees re
-recruited to a feeding station. 3. Re-recruitment of non-naive forage
rs in both species was significantly greater in response to the condit
ioning scent than to the experimental controls. However, species behav
iour differed in one aspect; re-recruited A. cerana foragers landed on
the feeding station when unscented reward was offered, whereas re-rec
ruited A. dorsata foragers returned but would not land without conditi
oning scent present in the reward.