Role of conspecifics and personal experience on behavioral avoidance of contaminated flowers by bumblebees.

ABSTRACT: Pollinators use multiple cues whilst foraging including direct cues from flowers and indirect cues from other pollinators. The use of indirect social cues is common in social insects, such as honeybees and bumblebees, where a social environment facilitates the ability to use such cues. Bumblebees use cues to forage on flowers according to previous foraging experiences. Flowers are an essential food source for pollinators but also pose a high risk of parasite infection through the shared use of flowers leading to parasite spillover. Nevertheless, bumblebees have evolved behavioral defense mechanisms to limit parasite infection by avoiding contaminated flowers. Mechanisms underlying the avoidance of contaminated flowers by bumblebees are poorly understood. Bumblebees were recorded having the

SUBMITTER: Fouks B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6688574 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature