Honeybees can learn the relationship between the solar ephemeris and a newly-experienced landscape

Abstract

SUMMARYMany species learn the sunʼs daily pattern of azimuthal movement (the solar ephemeris function) for use in sun-compass orientation. In honeybees, this learning is accomplished with much innate guidance and yields stubborn, imprinting-like retention of certain aspects of the stored information. One such case involves the failure of transplanted bees to update their memories of the relationship between the solar ephemeris and a new landscape, even after many daysʼ experience at the new site. In the present study, I ask whether the bees in previous transplantation experiments failed to update their memories of the relationship between the sun and landscape because the source and recipient landscapes were (rotated) panoramic twins of each other, each dominated by a conspicuous treeline. To test this hypothesis, I transplanted bees from their natal site at the bottom of a valley to a panoramically different, treelined site and later tested the beesʼ knowledge of the sunʼs course in relation to the treeline. The test involved observing the beesʼ communicative dances under overcast skies at a second treeline that was a mirror image of the first. The cloudy-day dances show that the bees had indeed learned the relationship between sunʼs pattern of movement and the (panoramically novel) treelined site, indicating that the beesʼ memory of the relationship between the ephemeris function and the landscape is not incapable of revision as the earlier results had suggested. I discuss these results in the context of a brief summary of our current understanding of solar ephemeris learning in bees.

Honeybees can learn the relationship between the solar ephemeris and a newly-experienced landscape: a confirmation

“…All basic methods were as detailed previously (Towne et al, 2005;Towne, 2008). One hive was located at a wooded site near the highest point in the landscape (Fig.1Aiv), and a feeder there was placed near the hive.…”

“…One hive was located at a wooded site near the highest point in the landscape (Fig.1Aiv), and a feeder there was placed near the hive. A second, 'training' hive was located along the same sloping treeline used by Towne (Towne, 2008) (Fig.1Aii), which was different from the wooded site in every obvious way. In order to determine whether bees native to the wooded site ( Fig.1Aiv) could learn the sun's course in relation to the landscape at the training site ( Fig.1Aii), groups of individually marked bees with at least 3days of foraging experience were transplanted in small cages from the wooded site into the hive at the training site (transplantation is indicated by the red arrowhead between Fig.1Aiv and 1Aii).…”

“…Towne (Towne, 2008) therefore asked whether bees can ever learn the relationship between the solar ephemeris and a new landscape (that is, other than the bees' natal one). He transplanted bees from their natal site in a thinly wooded valley (Fig.1Ai) to a visually dissimilar recipient site along a sloping treeline (Fig.1Aii).…”

“…non-natal) landscape, if the landscape surrounding the nest at the second site is panoramically different from the bees' natal landscape. The broader theoretical context of this experiment is reviewed in Towne's study (Towne, 2008).…”

Effects of the juvenile hormone analogue methoprene on rate of behavioural development, foraging performance and navigation in honey bees (Apis mellifera)

“…It is associated with major physiological changes in flight muscle (Correa-Fernandez and Cruz-Landim, 2010;Herold, 1965), a significant decrease in body mass (Harrison, 1986), glands (Winston, 1987) and fat stores (Toth and Robinson, 2005), and changes in metabolic rate (Harrison, 1986) and circadian rhythm . It is preceded by a number of orientation flights in which a bee flies through the area around the hive in a systematic way, apparently learning a range of celestial and terrestrial navigational cues by which foragers can locate food sources and return home (Becker, 1958;Capaldi et al, 2000;Dyer and Gould, 1983;Srinivasan, 2011;Towne, 2008;Towne and Moscrip, 2008).…”