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Sci Rep

Title:		Bumblebees can discriminate between scent-marks deposited by conspecifics
Author(s):		Pearce RF; Giuggioli L; Rands SA;
Address:		"School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK. Bristol Centre for Complexity Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK. Department of Engineering Mathematics, University of Bristol, UK"
Journal Title:		Sci Rep
Year:		2017
Volume:		20170307
Issue:
Page Number:		43872 -
DOI:		10.1038/srep43872
ISSN/ISBN:		2045-2322 (Electronic) 2045-2322 (Linking)
Abstract:		"Bumblebees secrete a substance from their tarsi wherever they land, which can be detected by conspecifics. These secretions are referred to as scent-marks, which bumblebees are able to use as social cues. Although it has been found that bumblebees can detect and associate scent-marks with rewarding or unrewarding flowers, their ability at discriminating between scent-marks from bumblebees of differing relatedness is unknown. We performed three separate experiments with bumblebees (Bombus terrestris), where they were repeatedly exposed to rewarding and unrewarding artificial flowers simultaneously. Each flower type carried scent-marks from conspecifics of differing relatedness or were unmarked. We found that bumblebees are able to distinguish between 1. Unmarked flowers and flowers that they themselves had scent-marked, 2. Flowers scent-marked by themselves and flowers scent-marked by others in their nest (nestmates), and 3. Flowers scent-marked by their nestmates and flowers scent-marked by non-nestmates. The bumblebees found it more difficult to discriminate between each of the flower types when both flower types were scent-marked. Our findings show that bumblebees have the ability to discriminate between scent-marks of conspecifics, which are potentially very similar in their chemical composition, and they can use this ability to improve their foraging success"
Keywords:		Animals Bees/metabolism/*physiology Cues Discrimination Learning/physiology Feeding Behavior/physiology Flowers/*chemistry *Odorants Pheromones/*metabolism Reward;
Notes:		"MedlinePearce, Richard F Giuggioli, Luca Rands, Sean A eng Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't England 2017/03/08 Sci Rep. 2017 Mar 7; 7:43872. doi: 10.1038/srep43872"