Spontaneous colour preferences in the Eastern honeybee, Apis cerana
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1
Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, School of Biology, India
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2
University of Exeter, Psychology, United Kingdom
Some insect pollinators in temperate habitats exhibit spontaneous, possibly innate preferences for blueish colours (1-3) despite their ability to quickly learn colours. Here we ask whether this is an adaptation to the colour and reward properties of the local flora (1,4) or whether it is a sensory bias that might be common in pollinating insects. We determined the spontaneous colour preferences in the Eastern honeybee, Apis cerana, that has evolved in tropical habitats, to compare its colour preferences with those of its allopatric sister species in the temperate zone, the Western honeybee (1, 5). These experiments were performed with A.cerana that were free-flying as well as with those that were confined to flight cages for 6 weeks. Marked foragers were individually trained for a short period of time to collect sucrose solution from three rewarded UV-grey discs in various locations on a large black disc. Subsequently they were presented with eight unrewarded colour discs. Foragers that were kept in flight cages for 6 weeks foraging on black feeders preferred blue and violet stimuli. Approaches to yellow, orange and red stimuli were significantly lower. Freely foraging bees had a preference pattern that was shifted towards longer wavelengths which was consistent with the colours of the flowers that prevailed in the surrounding area. The spontaneous preferences found in the Eastern honeybee resembled those of European honeybees and bumblebees. These results support the hypothesis that spontaneous colour preferences in bees arise from a sensory bias which persists despite major differences between floral habitats.
References
1. Giurfa, M., Núñez, J., Chittka, L., and Menzel, R. (1995). Colour preferences of flower-naive honeybees. Journal of Comparative Physiology A: Neuroethology, Sensory, Neural, and Behavioral Physiology 177, 247-259.
2. Gumbert, A. (2000). Color choices by bumble bees (Bombus terrestris): innate preferences and generalization after learning. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 48, 36-43.
3. Kelber, A. (2007) Invertebrate colour vision. In: Invertebrate Vision (eds Warrant, E.J. and Nilsson, D.-E.), pp 250-289, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
4. Raine, N.E., and Chittka, L. (2007). The Adaptive Significance of Sensory Bias in a Foraging Context: Floral Colour Preferences in the Bumblebee Bombus terrestris. PLoS ONE 2, e556.
5. Arias, M.C., and Sheppard, W.S. (2005). Phylogenetic relationships of honey bees (Hymenoptera:Apinae:Apini) inferred from nuclear and mitochondrial DNA sequence data. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 37, 25-35.
Keywords:
Bees,
Colour vision,
Insects,
Pollination
Conference:
Tenth International Congress of Neuroethology, College Park. Maryland USA, United States, 5 Aug - 10 Aug, 2012.
Presentation Type:
Poster Presentation (see alternatives below as well)
Topic:
Learning, Memory and Behavioral Plasticity
Citation:
Somanathan
H,
MG
B,
Nicholas
E and
De Ibarra
NH
(2012). Spontaneous colour preferences in the Eastern honeybee, Apis cerana.
Conference Abstract:
Tenth International Congress of Neuroethology.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnbeh.2012.27.00314
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Received:
30 Apr 2012;
Published Online:
07 Jul 2012.
*
Correspondence:
Dr. Hema Somanathan, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, School of Biology, Trivandrum, Kerala, 695016, India, hsomanathan@iisertvm.ac.in