ABSTRACT

Bees provide a good model to investigate the evolution of lateralization. So far, most studies focused on olfactory learning and memories in tethered bees. This study investigated possible behavioural biases in free-flying buff-tailed bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) by analysing their turning decisions in a T-maze. Bees of various size were trained to associate a syrup reward with a blue target placed at the centre of the T-maze. The bees were then tested over 16 trials by presenting them with blue targets at the end of the maze’s arms. The maze was rotated 180° after the first 8 trials to control for environmental factors. The number of turnings to the left and right arms were analysed. The bees sampled exhibited a population-level rightward turning bias. As bumblebees vary significantly in size with large bees being better learners than smaller ones, we measured the thorax width to identify a possible relationship between size and bias. No significant correlation was identified. This study shows that bees present lateralization in a visuo-motor task that mimics their foraging behaviour, indicating a possible specialization of the right side of the nervous system in routine tasks.

摘要

蜜蜂为研究侧枝化的发展提供了一个很好的模型。到目前为止，大多数研究都集中在系留蜂的嗅觉学习和记忆上。这项研究调查了自由飞行的浅尾大黄蜂（Bombus terrestris）中可能的行为偏见）通过在T型迷宫中分析他们的转弯决策来实现。训练了各种大小的蜜蜂，使糖浆奖励与放置在T-迷宫中心的蓝色靶标相关联。然后对蜜蜂进行了16次试验，在迷宫的手臂末端将蓝色靶标呈现给蜜蜂。在前8次试验后将迷宫旋转180°，以控制环境因素。分析了左臂和右臂的转弯次数。所采样的蜜蜂表现出种群水平的右转向偏向。由于大黄蜂的大小差异显着，大蜜蜂比小蜜蜂更好地学习，因此我们测量了胸宽，以确定大小和偏倚之间的可能关系。没有发现明显的相关性。这项研究表明，蜜蜂在模仿运动的觅食行为的视觉运动任务中表现出偏侧性，