Social learning represents a high-level complex process to acquire information about the environment, which is increasingly reported in invertebrates. The animal–robot interaction paradigm turned out to be an encouraging strategy to unveil social learning in vertebrates, but it has not been fully exploited in invertebrates. In this study, Lucilia sericata adults were induced to observe bio-robotic conspecific and predator demonstrators to reproduce different flower foraging choices. Can a fly manage two flows of social information with opposite valence? Herein, we attempt a reply. The selection process of L. sericata was affected by social information provided through different bio-robotic demonstrators, by avoiding coloured discs previously visited by a bio-robotic predator and preferring coloured discs previously visited by a bio-robotic conspecific. When both bio-robotic demonstrators visited the same disc, the latency duration increased and the flies significantly tended to avoid this disc. This indicates the complex risk–benefit evaluation process carried out by L. sericata during the acquisition of such social information. Overall, this article provides a unique perspective on the behavioural ecology of social learning in non-social insects; it also highlights the high potential of the animal–robot interaction approach for unveiling the full spectrum of invertebrates' abilities in using social information.

社会学习代表了获取环境信息的高级复杂过程，这种情况在无脊椎动物中越来越多地被报道。动物与机器人交互范式被证明是揭示脊椎动物社会学习的令人鼓舞的策略，但它尚未在无脊椎动物中得到充分利用。在这项研究中，丝光绿蝇成虫被诱导观察生物机器人同种和捕食者演示者，以重现不同的花朵觅食选择。苍蝇能否管理两种价态相反的社会信息流？在此，我们尝试做出回应。 L. sericata的选择过程受到不同生物机器人演示者提供的社会信息的影响，通过避免生物机器人捕食者之前访问过的彩色圆盘，而更喜欢生物机器人同种之前访问过的彩色圆盘。当两个生物机器人演示者访问同一个圆盘时，潜伏期持续时间增加，并且果蝇显着倾向于避开该圆盘。这表明丝光L. sericata在获取此类社会信息的过程中进行了复杂的风险收益评估过程。总体而言，本文为非社会性昆虫社会学习的行为生态学提供了独特的视角；它还强调了动物与机器人交互方法在揭示无脊椎动物使用社会信息的全方位能力方面的巨大潜力。