THE ATTRACTION OF AFRICANIZED HONEY-BEES (APIS-MELLIFERA L.) TO SOFT DRINKS AND PERFUMES

The attraction of Africanized bees to soft drinks and perfumes was inv estigated. In the first experiment, the ability of bees to discriminat e between two perfumes (Realm for Men and Realm for Women) was assesse d. The results indicated that the scents could be used as conditioned stimuli. In the second experiment, bees were divided into individual g roups and confined to small metal tubes. Groups were fed either Diet P epsi, spring water (control), Diet Guarana, Diet Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola, Sprite, Pepsi, Guarana, Sukita Orange, Fanta Orange, Fanta Grape, or sucrose (control). The dependent variable was the amount of time the b ee's proboscis was in contact with a strip of filter paper saturated w ith the substance. The results indicated little or no contact with the diet soft drinks and spring water, 45-65 s of contact with Coca-Cola, Sprite, Pepsi, Guarana, and Sukita Orange, and 75-140 s of contact wi th Fanta Orange, Fanta Grape, and sucrose (sucrose elicited the most c ontact of the substances tested). In a third experiment, the ability o f bees to associate an odor with a soft drink was assessed in a discri mination task. With Citral and Geraniol as conditioned stimuli, condit ioning was best to sucrose, Guarana, and Fanta Orange. Little conditio ning was observed with Pepsi, and no conditioning was observed with Di et Pepsi.