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Sci Rep

Title:		In-hive learning of specific mimic odours as a tool to enhance honey bee foraging and pollination activities in pear and apple crops
Author(s):		Farina WM; Arenas A; Diaz PC; Susic Martin C; Corriale MJ;
Address:		"Laboratorio de Insectos Sociales, Departamento de Biodiversidad y Biologia Experimental, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Buenos Aires, Argentina. walter@fbmc.fcen.uba.ar. Instituto de Fisiologia, Biologia Molecular y Neurociencias (IFIBYNE), CONICET-Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina. walter@fbmc.fcen.uba.ar. Laboratorio de Insectos Sociales, Departamento de Biodiversidad y Biologia Experimental, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Instituto de Fisiologia, Biologia Molecular y Neurociencias (IFIBYNE), CONICET-Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Instituto Nacional de Medicina Tropical, Administracion Nacional de Laboratorios e Institutos de Salud (ANLIS), Ministerio de Salud de la Nacion, Puerto Iguazu, Misiones, Argentina. Grupo de Estudios sobre Biodiversidad en Agroecosistemas, Departamento de Ecologia, Genetica y Evolucion, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Instituto de Ecologia, Genetica y Evolucion de Buenos Aires (IEGEBA), CONICET-Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina"
Journal Title:		Sci Rep
Year:		2022
Volume:		20221128
Issue:		1
Page Number:		20510 -
DOI:		10.1038/s41598-022-22985-5
ISSN/ISBN:		2045-2322 (Electronic) 2045-2322 (Linking)
Abstract:		"The areas devoted to agriculture that depend on pollinators have been sharply increased in the last decades with a concomitant growing global demand for pollination services. This forces to consider new strategies in pollinators' management to improve their efficiency. To promote a precision pollination towards a specific crop, we developed two simple synthetic odorant mixtures that honey bees generalized with their respective natural floral scents of the crop. We chose two commercial crops for fruit production that often coexist in agricultural settings, the apple (Malus domesticus) and the pear trees (Pyrus communis). Feeding colonies with sucrose solution scented with the apple mimic (AM) or the pear mimic (PM) odour enabled the establishment of olfactory memories that can bias bees towards the flowers of these trees. Encompassing different experimental approaches, our results support the offering of scented food to improve foraging and pollination activities of honey bees. The circulation of AM-scented sucrose solution inside the hive promoted higher colony activity, probably associated with greater activity of nectar foragers. The offering of PM-scented sucrose solution did not increase colony activity but led to greater pollen collection, which is consistent with pear flowers offering mainly pollen as resources for the bees. Results obtained from apple and pear crops suggest that the offering of AM- and PM-scented sucrose solution increased fruit yields. This preliminary study highlights the role of in-hive olfactory learning to bias foraging preferences within pome fruit crops"
Keywords:		"Bees Animals *Pyrus Pollination *Malus Odorants *Urticaria Crops, Agricultural Pheromones Sucrose;"
Notes:		"MedlineFarina, Walter M Arenas, Andres Diaz, Paula C Susic Martin, Cinthia Corriale, Maria J eng Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't England 2022/11/29 Sci Rep. 2022 Nov 28; 12(1):20510. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-22985-5"