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J Comp Physiol A Neuroethol Sens Neural Behav Physiol

Title:		Stingless bees (Scaptotrigona pectoralis) learn foreign trail pheromones and use them to find food
Author(s):		Reichle C; Aguilar I; Ayasse M; Jarau S;
Address:		"Institute for Experimental Ecology, University of Ulm, 89069, Ulm, Germany. christian.reichle@uni-ulm.de"
Journal Title:		J Comp Physiol A Neuroethol Sens Neural Behav Physiol
Year:		2011
Volume:		20101104
Issue:		3
Page Number:		243 - 249
DOI:		10.1007/s00359-010-0605-6
ISSN/ISBN:		1432-1351 (Electronic) 0340-7594 (Linking)
Abstract:		"Foragers of several species of stingless bees (Hymenoptera, Apidae and Meliponini) deposit pheromone marks in the vegetation to guide nestmates to new food sources. These pheromones are produced in the labial glands and are nest and species specific. Thus, an important question is how recruited foragers recognize their nestmates' pheromone in the field. We tested whether naive workers learn a specific trail pheromone composition while being recruited by nestmates inside the hive in the species Scaptotrigona pectoralis. We installed artificial scent trails branching off from trails deposited by recruiting foragers and registered whether newly recruited bees follow these trails. The artificial trails were baited with trail pheromones of workers collected from foreign S. pectoralis colonies. When the same foreign trail pheromone was presented inside the experimental hives while recruitment took place a significant higher number of bees followed the artificial trails than in experiments without intranidal presentation. Our results demonstrate that recruits of S. pectoralis can learn the composition of specific trail pheromone bouquets inside the nest and subsequently follow this pheromone in the field. We, therefore, suggest that trail pheromone recognition in S. pectoralis is based on a flexible learning process rather than being a genetically fixed behaviour"
Keywords:		"Animals Bees/*physiology Behavior, Animal/physiology Exploratory Behavior/*physiology Feeding Behavior/*physiology/psychology Learning/*physiology Sex Attractants/*physiology Smell/*physiology Social Behavior;"
Notes:		"MedlineReichle, Christian Aguilar, Ingrid Ayasse, Manfred Jarau, Stefan eng Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't Germany 2010/11/06 J Comp Physiol A Neuroethol Sens Neural Behav Physiol. 2011 Mar; 197(3):243-9. doi: 10.1007/s00359-010-0605-6. Epub 2010 Nov 4"