Comparative psychophysics of Western honey bee (Apis mellifera) and stingless bee (Tetragonula carbonaria) colour purity and intensity perception.

ABSTRACT: Bees play a vital role as pollinators worldwide and have influenced how flower colour signals have evolved. The Western honey bee, Apis mellifera (Apini), and the Buff-tailed bumble bee, Bombus terrestris (Bombini) are well-studied model species with regard to their sensory physiology and pollination capacity, although currently far less is known about stingless bees (Meliponini) that are common in pantropical regions. We conducted comparative experiments with two highly eusocial bee species, the Western honey bee, A. mellifera, and the Australian stingless bee, Tetragonula carbonaria, to understand their colour preferences considering fine-scaled stimuli specifically designed for testing bee colour vision. We employed stimuli made of pigment powders to allow manipulation of single colour

SUBMITTER: Koethe S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9734212 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature