The correlation of learning speed and natural foraging success in bumble-bees.

ABSTRACT: Despite the widespread assumption that the learning abilities of animals are adapted to the particular environments in which they operate, the quantitative effects of learning performance on fitness remain virtually unknown. Here, we evaluate the learning performance of bumble-bees (Bombus terrestris) from multiple colonies in an ecologically relevant associative learning task under laboratory conditions, before testing the foraging performance of the same colonies under the field conditions. We demonstrate that variation in learning speed among bumble-bee colonies is directly correlated with the foraging performance, a robust fitness measure, under natural conditions. Colonies vary in learning speed by a factor of nearly five, with the slowest learning colonies collecting 40% less nectar

SUBMITTER: Raine NE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2596909 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature