Sonicating bees demonstrate flexible pollen extraction without instrumental learning.

ABSTRACT: Pollen collection is necessary for bee survival and important for flowering plant reproduction, yet if and how pollen extraction motor routines are modified with experience is largely unknown. Here, we used an automated reward and monitoring system to evaluate modification in a common pollen-extraction routine, floral sonication. Through a series of laboratory experiments with the bumblebee, Bombus impatiens, we examined whether variation in sonication frequency and acceleration is due to instrumental learning based on rewards, a fixed behavioral response to rewards, and/or a mechanical constraint. We first investigated whether bees could learn to adjust their sonication frequency in response to pollen rewards given only for specified frequency ranges and found no evidence of instru

SUBMITTER: Switzer CM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6688570 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature