First published online October 5, 2007
Journal of Experimental Biology 210, 3559-3567 (2007)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2007
doi: 10.1242/jeb.005488
Circadian timed episodic-like memory – a bee knows what to do when, and also where
Mario Pahl1,
Hong Zhu2,
Waltraud Pix2,
Juergen Tautz1,* and
Shaowu Zhang2,*,
1 BEEgroup, Biozentrum, Universitaet Würzburg, Am Hubland, D-97074
Würzburg, Germany
2 ARC Centre of Excellence in Vision Science, Research School of Biological
Sciences, Australian National University, PO Box 475, Canberra ACT 2601,
Australia

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Fig. 1. The experimental set-up and visual patterns. Yellow patterns were used in
the training and learning test in the morning at Maze B; blue patterns were
used in the training and learning test in the afternoon at Maze A; black
patterns were used in experiment 1, the transfer tests at Maze A and B.
Various transfer tests were conducted at Maze C: (a) experiment 2: yellow
training patterns in the morning and blue training patterns in the afternoon;
(b) experiment 3: blue and yellow vertical patterns in the morning and blue
and yellow horizontal patterns in the afternoon; (c) experiment 4: black
horizontal and vertical patterns in the morning and in the afternoon. The
rewarded patterns were denoted by (+) and the unrewarded patterns were denoted
by (–). See text for further details.
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Fig. 2. Trained bees change their preference to visit Maze A or Maze B from morning
to afternoon. (A) Percentage of total visits at Maze A and B in the learning
tests with yellow gratings in the morning at maze B and blue gratings in the
afternoon at maze A; (B) percentage of total visits at Maze A and Maze B in
the transfer tests with black and white gratings. N, number of
repetitions of tests; values are means ± s.e.m. See text for further
details.
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Fig. 3. (A) Results of the learning tests at mazes A and B. The tested bees
significantly reversed their pattern preference from the yellow vertical
grating in the morning to the blue horizontal grating in the afternoon. (B)
Results of experiment 1, the transfer tests with black patterns at mazes A and
B. The tested bees significantly reversed their pattern preference from the
vertical grating in the morning to the horizontal grating in the afternoon.
N, number of individual bees attending the test; values are means
± s.e.m. See text for further details.
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Fig. 4. Results of experiments 2–4, the transfer tests at maze C. (A)
Experiment 2: yellow and blue training patterns. The bees significantly
reversed their pattern preference from the yellow vertical grating in the
morning to the blue horizontal grating in the afternoon at the neutral
location. (B) Experiment 3: yellow and blue patterns in the same orientation.
The bees significantly reversed their colour preference from yellow in the
morning to blue in the afternoon at the neutral location. (C) Experiment 4:
black patterns. The bees significantly reversed their pattern preference from
the vertical grating in the morning to the horizontal grating in the
afternoon. N, number of individual bees attending the test; values
are means ± s.e.m. See text for further details.
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© The Company of Biologists Ltd 2007