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First published online March 30, 2006
Journal of Experimental Biology 209, 1367-1375 (2006)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2006
doi: 10.1242/jeb.02156

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Honeybee odometry and scent guidance

Tony Vladusich^1,*, Jan M. Hemmi² and Jochen Zeil²

¹ Laboratory of Experimental Ophthalmology and NeuroImaging Centre, School of Behavioural and Cognitive Neurosciences, University Medical Centre Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
² Centre for Visual Science, Research School of Biological Sciences, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2600, Australia

View larger version (9K): [in a new window]   Fig. 1. Schematic illustration of the set-up for scent-position experiments. The set-up and protocol were similar to those used in the dual-distance experiments. The main difference was that, in the scent-position experiments, two groups of bees were separately trained to forage in separate tunnels (Tunnels A and B). The rationale was to train bees to a particular location, thereby allowing bees to learn a specific odometry reading, and then to examine search behaviour in a situation where scent information conflicted with the odometry reading. To this end, bees were tested either (1) in their `own' training tunnel (e.g. Tunnel A) following a procedure to mimic shifting of the tunnel (dummy-shift condition), (2) in their own tunnel immediately following a training session (no-shift condition), (3) in the tunnel in which the second group of bees were trained at a different position (unit 5/10 tunnel condition) or (4) in a fresh tunnel (Tunnel C) devoid of scent (fresh tunnel condition).

View larger version (22K): [in a new window]   Fig. 2. Results of Experiment 1. Bees trained at units 5 and 10 and then tested in either (A) the training tunnel or (B) a fresh tunnel devoid of scent. Different groups of bees were used in each condition. Bees tested in A were more likely to initiate search (first U-turns; Kolmogorov–Smirnov test, P<0.001) closer to the longer site than bees tested in B. Training consisted of blocks in which bees were either rewarded in the sequence short, long, short, long or vice versa (the sequence alternated hourly). Data from each condition were collected directly following training to either the short or long site. We found no effect of the most recent training location (i.e. no recency effect of memory) in either condition. Black bars, first U-turns; grey bars, second U-turns; coloured lines, search distributions; inverted triangles, training locations; n, flight number.

View larger version (23K): [in a new window]   Fig. 3. Results of Experiment 2. A single group of bees was trained at units 5 and 15 using the dual-distance protocol. Similar to the results of Experiment 1, bees tested in the training tunnel (A) were more likely to initiate search (first U-turns; Kolmogorov–Smirnov test, P<0.01) closer to the longer site than bees tested (B) in a fresh tunnel. We found a moderately significant effect of recency for bees tested in the training tunnel condition but not the fresh tunnel condition (see text for details). See Fig. 2 for further details of symbols.

View larger version (40K): [in a new window]   Fig. 4. Results of Experiment 3. Bees trained at unit 10 and then tested in (A) the training tunnel following a `dummy shift', (B) the training tunnel following no shift, (C) a tunnel in which bees were trained at unit 5 and (D) a fresh tunnel devoid of scent. Bees in C searched at a significantly shorter distance than in A, B and D, indicating that scent `pulled' searches towards unit 5. Inverted triangles, training location with scent; diamond, scent location; squares, training location without scent. See Fig. 2 for further details.

View larger version (37K): [in a new window]   Fig. 5. Results of Experiment 4. Bees trained at unit 5 and then tested in (A) the training tunnel following a `dummy shift', (B) the training tunnel following no shift, (C) a tunnel in which bees were trained at unit 10, and (D) a fresh tunnel. Mean search position did not differ across conditions, indicating that bees searched in accord with the odometer reading stored in memory rather than the position of the scent. See Fig. 4 for further details of symbols.