Ethanol consumption has been shown to have many deleterious effects, including behavioral alterations, motor deficits, reduction in inhibition, and alteration of neurochemical expression. These effects occur in the wide variety of species that consume ethanol. Although studies have examined aversive conditioning in honey bees (Apis mellifera), few have examined the role of intoxication on the acquisition of learning in such paradigms. The current study continues a line of research using honey bees as a model to explore the behavioral effects of ethanol toxicity. A passive avoidance task is used to explore how increasing dosages of ethanol affects the ability of honey bees to perform this task. The results show that honey bees exposed to higher concentrations of ethanol have slower passive avoidance acquisition than bees exposed to lower concentrations under the same conditions. Bees not experiencing aversive stimuli displayed no difference from baseline behavior when exposed to varying concentrations of ethanol.

Aversive learning has been studied in a variety of species, such as honey bees, mice, and non-human primates. Since aversive learning has been found in some invertebrates and mammals, it will be interesting to know if this ability is shared with crickets. This paper provides data on aversive learning in male and female house crickets (Acheta domesticus) using a shuttle box apparatus. Crickets are an ideal subject for these experiments due to their well-documented learning abilities in other contexts and their readily quantifiable behaviors. The shuttle box involves a two-compartment shock grid in which a ‘master’ cricket can learn to avoid the shock by moving to specific designated locations, while a paired yoked cricket is shocked regardless of its location and therefore cannot learn. Baseline control crickets were placed in the same device as the experimental crickets but did not receive a shock. Male and female master crickets demonstrated some aversive learning, as indicated by spending more time than expected by chance in the correct (no shock) location during some parts of the experiment, although there was high variability in performance. These results suggest that there is limited evidence that the house crickets in this experiment learned how to avoid the shock. Further research with additional stimuli and other cricket species should be conducted to determine if house crickets and other species of crickets exhibit aversive learning.

Researchers have determined that bioavailable aluminum chloride (AlCl3) may affect honey bee behavior (e.g., foraging patterns and locomotion) and physiology (e.g., abdominal spasms). The purpose of these experiments was to determine if Fiji water reduces the impacts of AlCl3 toxicity in bees by measuring circadian rhythmicity (number of times bees crossed the centerline during the day and night), average daily activity (average number of times bees crossed the centerline per day), and mortality rates (average number of days survived) using an automated monitor apparatus. Overall, the AlCl3 before and after Fiji groups had significantly higher average daily activity and rhythmicity rates compared to their respective AlCl3 before and after deionized water (DI) groups. One of the AlCl3 before DI groups exhibited no difference in rhythmicity rates compared to its respective AlCl3 after Fiji group. Overall, these results suggest that Fiji water might exert protective effects against AlCl3. The AlCl3 groups paired with Fiji water had higher activity and rhythmicity levels compared to the AlCl3 groups paired with DI. It is important for researchers to continue to study aluminum and possible preventatives for aluminum uptake.

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