Reception and learning of electric fields in bees

Greggers, Uwe; Koch, G.; Schmidt, Viola; Dürr, Aron; Floriou-Servou, Amalia; Piepenbrock, David; Göpfert, Martin C.; Menzel, Randolf

doi:10.1098/rspb.2013.0528

Cited by 78 publications

(99 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…These results differ from other recent studies that emphasized the role of antennal mechanosensors of honey bees (Apis mellifera) (8) and cockroaches (9) in responding to electric charge. Greggers et al (8) found that, in addition to the list of known sensory stimuli used by honey bees to communicate their movements to hive mates during the waggle-dance (10), they sense the modulations of the amplitude of the electric fields on their bodies as they move their abdomens and wings closer to or away from neighboring bees.…”

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confidence: 56%

Electric fields of flowers stimulate the sensory hairs of bumble bees

Zakon¹

2016

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Most of us have been shocked after walking across a carpet and touching a metal doorknob. The build-up of charge-"static" electricity-on the surface of some nonconductors because of friction is called triboelectricity. We are unaware of the build-up of charge on our bodies as we walk and only notice it upon discharge when it briefly stimulates our pain-sensing neurons; it is essentially an epiphenomenon for us. That positive charge builds up on flying insects, such as bees, has been appreciated for decades (1, 2). Similarly, flowers hold electric charge and their negatively charged pollens are attracted to the positive charge on the bodies of alighting bees (3). So at the very least, a bee's accumulation of charge is harnessed to aid in pollination.But, do bees sense the charge on their bodies or on flowers, and use this information to guide their behavior or, like us, are they unaware of it? If bees sense electric fields, then how? A recent set of experiments by Robert and colleagues demonstrated that bumble bees (Bombus terrestris) indeed sense a flower's electric fields, that these convey important information to them (4) and, in an article in PNAS (5), Sutton et al. show that these electric fields are sensed by electrostatic movements of the many mechanosensory filiform hairs over their bodies.In their first study, Clarke et al. (4) showed that flowers have distinct patterns of electric charge over their surface, and that bees learn to discriminate charged and uncharged artificial flowers. Adding electric patterns to visual patterns on these flowers enhanced the bees' rate of discrimination learning. One other interesting point is that when bumble bees land on flowers, some of the positive charge from their bodies moves to the flower and cancels some of the flower's negative charge; this lasts for 1 to 2 min (Fig. 1). The authors hypothesized that a bee might use the net charge of a flower to judge if the flower has been recently visited by another bee and, therefore, has diminished offerings of nectar and pollen.In PNAS, Sutton et al. (5) test the sensitivity of two candidate structures for sensing electric charge: the many tiny filiform hairs distributed over the head and body, and the antennae, both of which are deflected by electric charge and innervated. The hypothesis is that the movement of either or both structures by an electric charge is detectable by the mechanosensory neurons that innervate the filiform hairs and the base of the antenna. In other words, there is no dedicated electroreceptor per se, as found in sharks or electric fish (6, 7), but rather the electrically forced movement of a mechanosensory structure. Using laser Doppler vibrometer, Sutton et al. (5) measured the movements of these structures to applied electric fields, finding that the filiform hairs move with an order-of-magnitude greater velocity than the antennae to the same applied fields. The key experiment was recording from the mechanosensory neurons emanating from the Fig. 1. A bumble bee can detect the electric fields of f...

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confidence: 56%

Electric fields of flowers stimulate the sensory hairs of bumble bees

Zakon¹

2016

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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“…Bees have been found to exploit changes in electric fields as a means of communication (Greggers et al 2013), opening up new avenues for research and sensor development.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Application of continuous monitoring of honeybee colonies

2014

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-Monitoring physical variables associated with honeybee colonies, including weight, temperature, humidity, respiratory gases, vibration, sound, and forager traffic, in a continuous manner is becoming feasible for most researchers as the cost and size of electronic sensors decrease while their precision and capacity increase. Researchers have taken different approaches to collecting and analyzing the resulting datasets, with a view toward extracting information on colony behavior and phenology. The objective of this review is to examine critically the different kinds of data and data analyses, providing researchers with better-informed options for obtaining information on colony phenology in the field without disturbing the hive, and for combining information from different kinds of sensors to obtain a more complete picture of colony status. Wireless sensor networks and powering sensors are briefly discussed.continuous hive weight / colony temperature / colony humidity / forager traffic / hive vibration

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“…Hence, the employment of any electrostatic charge to establish the thread's structure can be excluded. Being charged could actually counteract the purpose of the capture threads as insects can sense electric fields (Clarke et al, 2013;Greggers et al, 2013;Sutton et al, 2016). Hence, a charged capture thread would be detected and avoided by potential prey.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nanofibre production in spiders without electric charge

Joel

Baumgärtner

2017

Journal of Experimental Biology

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Technical nanofibre production is linked to high voltage, because nanofibres are typically produced by electrospinning. In contrast, spiders have evolved a way to produce nanofibres without high voltage. These spiders are called cribellate spiders and produce nanofibres within their capture thread production. It is suggested that their nanofibres become frictionally charged when brushed over a continuous area on the calamistrum, a comb-like structure at the metatarsus of the fourth leg. Although there are indications that electrostatic charges are involved in the formation of the thread structure, final proof is missing. We proposed three requirements to validate this hypothesis: (1) the removal of any charge during or after thread production has an influence on the structure of the thread; (2) the characteristic structure of the thread can be regenerated by charging; and (3) the thread is attracted to or repelled from differently charged objects. None of these three requirements were proven true. Furthermore, mathematical calculations reveal that even at low charges, the calculated structural assembly of the thread does not match the observed reality. Electrostatic forces are therefore not involved in the production of cribellate capture threads.

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Reception and learning of electric fields in bees

Cited by 78 publications

References 30 publications

Electric fields of flowers stimulate the sensory hairs of bumble bees

Electric fields of flowers stimulate the sensory hairs of bumble bees

Application of continuous monitoring of honeybee colonies

Nanofibre production in spiders without electric charge

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