ORCID Profile
0000-0002-8135-6628
Current Organisation
Macquarie University
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Research Topics
In Research Link Australia (RLA), "Research Topics" refer to ANZSRC FOR and SEO codes. These topics are either sourced from ANZSRC FOR and SEO codes listed in researchers' related grants or generated by a large language model (LLM) based on their publications.
Top 5 Research Topics
ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)
Zoology | Animal Behaviour | Animal Neurobiology | Epigenetics (incl. Genome Methylation and Epigenomics) | Adaptive Agents and Intelligent Robotics | Neurogenetics | Invertebrate Biology | Sensory systems | Sensory Systems | Neurobiology | Genetics | Animal behaviour | Animal neurobiology | Zoology
ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)
Expanding Knowledge in the Biological Sciences | Expanding Knowledge in Psychology and Cognitive Sciences | Air Force | Expanding Knowledge in the Information and Computing Sciences | Biological sciences | Expanding Knowledge in the Medical and Health Sciences |
Related Links
Publications
Policing of adult honey bees with activated ovaries is error prone
Publisher: No publisher found
Date: 2002
The diverging epigenomic landscapes of honeybee queens and workers revealed by multiomic sequencing
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 04-2023
Social regulation of ovary activation in 'anarchistic' honey-bees (Apis mellifera)
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 26-01-2001
Visual regulation of ground speed and headwind compensation in freely flying honey bees (Apis mellifera L.)
Publisher: The Company of Biologists
Date: 03-2006
DOI: 10.1242/JEB.02085
Abstract: There is now increasing evidence that honey bees regulate their ground speed in flight by holding constant the speed at which the image of the environment moves across the eye (optic flow). We have investigated the extent to which ground speed is affected by headwinds. Honey bees were trained to enter a tunnel to forage at a sucrose feeder placed at its far end. Ground speeds in the tunnel were recorded while systematically varying the visual texture of the tunnel, and the strength of headwinds experienced by the flying bees. We found that in a flight tunnel bees used visual cues to maintain their ground speed, and adjusted their air speed to maintain a constant rate of optic flow, even against headwinds which were, at their strongest, 50% of a bee's maximum recorded forward velocity. Manipulation of the visual texture revealed that headwind is compensated almost fully even when the optic flow cues are very sparse and subtle, demonstrating the robustness of this visual flight control system. We discuss these findings in the context of field observations of flying bees.
Accelerated behavioural development changes fine-scale search behaviour and spatial memory in honey bees (Apis mellifera L.)
Publisher: The Company of Biologists
Date: 2016
DOI: 10.1242/JEB.126920
Abstract: Normally worker honey bees (Apis mellifera) begin foraging when more than two weeks old as adults, but if in idual bees or the colony is stressed bees often begin foraging precociously. Here we examined whether bees that accelerated their behavioural development to begin foraging precociously differed from normal-aged foragers in cognitive performance. We used a social manipulation to generate precocious foragers from small experimental colonies and tested their performance in a free-flight visual reversal learning task, and a test of spatial memory. To assess spatial memory, bees were trained to learn the location of a small sucrose feeder within an array of three landmarks. In tests the feeder and one landmark were removed and the search behaviour of bees was recorded. Performance of precocious and normal-aged foragers did not differ in a visual reversal learning task, but the two groups showed a clear difference in spatial memory. Flight behaviour suggested normal-aged foragers were better able to infer the position of the removed landmark and feeder relative to the remaining landmarks than precocious foragers. Previous studies have documented the cognitive decline of old foragers, but this is the first suggestion of a cognitive deficit in young foragers. These data imply that worker honey bees continue their cognitive development during the adult stage. These findings may also help to explain why precocious foragers perform quite poorly as foragers and have a higher than normal loss rate.
Honey bees cannot sense harmful concentrations of metal pollutants in food
Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: 16-06-2021
DOI: 10.1101/2021.06.15.448345
Abstract: Whether animals can actively avoid food contaminated with harmful compounds through taste is key to understand their ecotoxicological risks. Here, we investigated the ability of honey bees to perceive and avoid food resources contaminated with common metal pollutants known to impair their cognition at low concentrations (lead, zinc and arsenic). In behavioural assays, bees did not discriminate food contaminated with field-realistic concentrations of these metals. Bees only reduced their food consumption and displayed aversive behaviours at very high, unrealistic concentrations of lead and zinc that they perceived through their antennae and proboscis. Electrophysiological analyses confirmed that high concentrations of the three metals in sucrose solution induced a reduced neural response to sucrose in their antennae. Our results thus show that honey bees can avoid metal pollutants in their food, but only at very high concentrations above regulatory levels. Their inability to detect lower, yet harmful, concentrations in a field-realistic range suggests that metal pollution is a major threat for pollinators.
Embracing multiple definitions of learning
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 07-2015
DOI: 10.1016/J.TINS.2015.04.008
Abstract: Definitions of learning vary widely across disciplines, driven largely by different approaches used to assess its occurrence. These definitions can be better reconciled with each other if each is recognized as coherent with a common conceptualization of learning, while appreciating the practical utility of different learning definitions in different contexts.
Behavioural induction in Drosophila: Timing and specificity
Publisher: Test accounts
Date: 2000
A role for octopamine in honey bee division of labor
Publisher: S. Karger AG
Date: 2002
DOI: 10.1159/000067788
Abstract: Efficient ision of labor is one of the main reasons for the success of the social insects. In honey bees the ision of labor is principally achieved by workers changing tasks as they age. Typically, young adult bees perform a series of tasks within the colony before ultimately making the transition to foraging outside the hive for resources. This lifelong behavioral development is a well-characterized ex le of naturally occurring behavioral plasticity, but its neural bases are not well understood. Two techniques were used to assess the role of biogenic amines in the transition from in-hive work to foraging, which is the most dramatic and obvious transition in honey bee behavioral development. First, associations between amines and tasks were determined by measuring the levels of amines in dissected regions of in idual bee brains using HPLC analysis. Second, colonies were orally treated with biogenic amines and effects on the onset of foraging were observed. Octopamine concentration in the antennal lobes of the bee brain was most reliably associated with task: high in foragers and low in nurses regardless of age. In contrast, octopamine in the mushroom bodies, a neighboring neuropil, was associated with age and not behavior, indicating independent modulation of octopamine in these two brain regions. Treating colonies with octopamine resulted in an earlier onset of foraging in young bees. In addition, octopamine levels were not elevated by non-foraging flight, but were already high on return from the first successful foraging trip and subsequently remained high, showing no further change with foraging experience. This observation suggests that octopamine becomes elevated in the antennal lobes in anticipation of foraging and is involved in the release and maintenance of the foraging state. Foraging itself, however, does not modulate octopamine levels. Behaviorally related changes in octopamine are modulated by juvenile hormone, which has also been implicated in the control of honey bee ision of labor. Treatment with the juvenile hormone analog methoprene elevated octopamine and octopamine treatment ‘rescued’ the delay in behavioral development caused by experimentally depleting juvenile hormone in bees. Although the pathways linking juvenile hormone and octopamine are presently unknown, it is clear that octopamine acts ‘downstream’ of juvenile hormone to influence behavior and that juvenile hormone modulates brain octopamine levels. A working hypothesis is that octopamine acts as an activator of foraging by modulating responsiveness to foraging-related stimuli. This is supported by the finding that octopamine treatment increased the response of bees to brood pheromone, a stimulator of foraging activity. Establishing a role for octopamine in honey bee behavioral development is a first step in understanding the neural bases of this ex le of naturally occurring, socially mediated, behavioral plasticity. The next level of analysis will be to determine precisely where and how octopamine acts in the nervous system to coordinate this complex social behavior.
Worker policing in the bee Apis florea
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 07-05-2001
Short-term exposure to lambda-cyhalothrin negatively affects the survival and memory-related characteristics of worker bees Apis mellifera
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 08-02-2018
DOI: 10.1007/S00244-018-0514-1
Abstract: Pesticides are considered one of the major contemporary stressors of honey bee health. In this study, the effects of short-term exposure to lambda-cyhalothrin on lifespan, learning, and memory-related characteristics of Apis mellifera were systematically examined. Short-term exposure to lambda-cyhalothrin in worker bees reduced lifespan, affected learning and memory performance, reduced the homing ability, and influenced the expression levels of two learning and memory-related genes of A. mellifera. This research identifies the nature of the sublethal effects of lambda-cyhalothrin on bees and the level of exposure that can be harmful to bee health. This new information will assist in establishing guidelines for the safe use of lambda-cyhalothrin in the field.
Author response: Bumblebees retrieve only the ordinal ranking of foraging options when comparing memories obtained in distinct settings
Publisher: eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd
Date: 04-09-2022
Invertebrate models in addiction research
Publisher: S. Karger AG
Date: 2013
DOI: 10.1159/000355506
Abstract: While drug addiction is a uniquely human problem, most research examining the biological mechanisms of the transition from substance use to addiction is conducted with vertebrate animal models. Many other fields of neuroscience have greatly benefitted from contributions from simple and manipulable invertebrate model systems. However, the potential of invertebrate research has yet to be fully capitalised on in the field of addiction neuroscience. This may be because of the complexity of addiction and the clinical imperative of addiction research. We argue that the homocentric diagnostic criteria of addiction are no more a hindrance to the use of invertebrate models than they are to vertebrate models. We highlight the strengths of the ersity of different invertebrate model systems in terms of neuroanatomy and molecular machinery, and stress that working with a range of different models will aid in understanding addiction and not be a disadvantage. Finally, we discuss the specific advantages of utilising invertebrate animals for addiction research and highlight key areas in which invertebrates are suited for making unique and meaningful contributions to this field.
A horizon scan of future threats and opportunities for pollinators and pollination
Publisher: PeerJ
Date: 09-08-2016
DOI: 10.7717/PEERJ.2249
Abstract: Background. Pollinators, which provide the agriculturally and ecologically essential service of pollination, are under threat at a global scale. Habitat loss and homogenisation, pesticides, parasites and pathogens, invasive species, and climate change have been identified as past and current threats to pollinators. Actions to mitigate these threats, e.g., agri-environment schemes and pesticide-use moratoriums, exist, but have largely been applied post-hoc. However, future sustainability of pollinators and the service they provide requires anticipation of potential threats and opportunities before they occur, enabling timely implementation of policy and practice to prevent, rather than mitigate, further pollinator declines. Methods. Using a horizon scanning approach we identified issues that are likely to impact pollinators, either positively or negatively, over the coming three decades. Results. Our analysis highlights six high priority, and nine secondary issues. High priorities are: (1) corporate control of global agriculture, (2) novel systemic pesticides, (3) novel RNA viruses, (4) the development of new managed pollinators, (5) more frequent heatwaves and drought under climate change, and (6) the potential positive impact of reduced chemical use on pollinators in non-agricultural settings. Discussion. While current pollinator management approaches are largely driven by mitigating past impacts, we present opportunities for pre-emptive practice, legislation, and policy to sustainably manage pollinators for future generations.
The development of honey bee colonies assessed using a new semi-automated brood counting method: CombCount
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 16-10-2018
Learning, gustatory responsiveness and tyramine differences across nurse and forager honeybees
Publisher: The Company of Biologists
Date: 2017
DOI: 10.1242/JEB.152496
Abstract: Honeybees are well known for their complex ision of labor. Each bee sequentially performs a series of social tasks during its life. The changes in social task performance are linked to gross differences in behavior and physiology. We here tested whether honeybees performing different social tasks (nursing vs. foraging) would differ in their gustatory responsiveness and associative learning behavior in addition to their daily tasks in the colony. Further, we investigated the role of the biogenic amine tyramine and its receptors in the behavior of nurse bees and foragers. Tyramine is an important insect neurotransmitter, which has long been neglected in behavioral studies since it was believed to only act as the metabolic precursor of the better-known amine octopamine. With the increasing number of characterized tyramine receptors in erse insects, we need to understand the functions of tyramine on its own account. Our findings suggest an important role for tyramine and its two receptors in regulating honeybee gustatory responsiveness, social organization and learning behavior. Foragers, which were more responsive to gustatory stimuli than nurse bees and performed better in appetitive learning, also differed from nurse bees in their tyramine brain titers and in the mRNA expression of a tyramine receptor in the brain. Pharmacological activation of tyramine receptors increased gustatory responsiveness of nurse bees and foragers and improved appetitive learning in nurse bees. These data suggest that a large part of behavioral differences between honeybees may be directly linked to tyramine signaling in the brain.
Measuring the cost of worker reproduction in honeybees: Work tempo in an 'anarchic' line
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 2004
Comparing injection, feeding and topical application methods for treatment of honeybees with octopamine
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 02-2007
DOI: 10.1016/J.JINSPHYS.2006.11.009
Abstract: Entomologists have used a range of techniques to treat insects with neuroactive compounds, but it is not always clear whether different treatment methods are equally effective in delivering a compound to a target organ. Here, we used five different techniques to treat honeybees with 3H-octopamine (3H-OA), and analysed the distribution of the 3H radiolabelled compound within different tissues and how it changed over time. All treatment methods, including injection of the median ocellus, resulted in 3H-OA detection in all parts of the honeybee. Injection through the median ocellus was the most effective method for delivering 3H-OA to the brain. Topical application of 3H-OA dissolved in dimethylformamide (dMF) to the thorax was as effective as thoracic injections of 3H-OA in delivering 3H-OA to the brain, but topical applications to the abdomen were less so. Most of the 3H-OA applied topically remained associated with the cuticle and the tissues of the body segment to which it had been applied. For all treatment methods, 3H-OA was rapidly lost from the brain and head capsule, and accumulated in the abdomen. Our findings demonstrate the value of thoracic topical treatment with compounds dissolved in dMF as an effective non-invasive method for short-term, systemic pharmacological treatments.
Starving honey bee (Apis mellifera) larvae signal pheromonally to worker bees
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 29-02-2016
DOI: 10.1038/SREP22359
Abstract: Cooperative brood care is diagnostic of animal societies. This is particularly true for the advanced social insects and the honey bee is the best understood of the insect societies. A brood pheromone signaling the presence of larvae in a bee colony has been characterised and well studied, but here we explored whether honey bee larvae actively signal their food needs pheromonally to workers. We show that starving honey bee larvae signal to workers via increased production of the volatile pheromone E-β-ocimene. Analysis of volatile pheromones produced by food-deprived and fed larvae with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry showed that starving larvae produced more E-β-ocimene. Behavioural analyses showed that adding E-β-ocimene to empty cells increased the number of worker visits to those cells and similarly adding E-β-ocimene to larvae increased worker visitation rate to the larvae. RNA-seq and qRT-PCR analysis identified 3 genes in the E-β-ocimene biosynthetic pathway that were upregulated in larvae following 30 minutes of starvation and these genes also upregulated in 2-day old larvae compared to 4-day old larvae (2-day old larvae produce the most E-β-ocimene). This identifies a pheromonal mechanism by which brood can beg for food from workers to influence the allocation of resources within the colony.
Vision: Flies move their eyes
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2023
Why Bees Are So Vulnerable to Environmental Stressors
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 04-2017
DOI: 10.1016/J.TREE.2016.12.009
Abstract: Bee populations are declining in the industrialized world, raising concerns for the sustainable pollination of crops. Pesticides, pollutants, parasites, diseases, and malnutrition have all been linked to this problem. We consider here neurobiological, ecological, and evolutionary reasons why bees are particularly vulnerable to these environmental stressors. Central-place foraging on flowers demands advanced capacities of learning, memory, and navigation. However, even at low intensity levels, many stressors damage the bee brain, disrupting key cognitive functions needed for effective foraging, with dramatic consequences for brood development and colony survival. We discuss how understanding the relationships between the actions of stressors on the nervous system, in idual cognitive impairments, and colony decline can inform constructive interventions to sustain bee populations.
Garden flowers
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 1999
Experience during early adulthood shapes the learning capacities and the number of synaptic boutons in the mushroom bodies of honey bees (Apis mellifera)
Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: 15-09-2017
Abstract: The honey bee mushroom bodies (MBs) are brain centers required for specific learning tasks. Here, we show that environmental conditions experienced as young adults affect the maturation of MB neuropil and performance in a MB-dependent learning task. Specifically, olfactory reversal learning was selectively impaired following early exposure to an impoverished environment lacking some of the sensory and social interactions present in the hive. In parallel, the overall number of synaptic boutons increased within the MB olfactory neuropil, whose volume remained unaffected. This suggests that experience of the rich in-hive environment promotes MB maturation and the development of MB-dependent learning capacities.
Transgenerational accumulation of methylome changes discovered in commercially reared honey bee (Apis mellifera) queens
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2020
Effect of age, behaviour and social environment on honey bee brain plasticity
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 12-05-2009
DOI: 10.1007/S00359-009-0449-0
Abstract: We examined the effects of behaviour, age and social environment on mushroom body volume in adult bees. The mushroom bodies are regions of the central brain important for sensory integration and learning. Their volume was influenced by behaviour throughout life: always larger in forager bees than age-matched nurse bees, even in old bees up to 93 days of age as adults. Mushroom body development was influenced by the social environment in the first 8 days of adult life, with different environments having markedly different effects on mushroom body size. Compared to hive-reared bees, isolation slowed mushroom body growth, but bees reared in isolation confined with a single dead bee showed a dramatic increase in mushroom body volume comparable to that seen in active foragers. Despite their precocious mushroom body development, these bees did not show improved performance in an olfactory learning test. Since simple environmental manipulations can both accelerate and delay mushroom body growth in young bees, and since mushroom body volume is sensitive to behaviour throughout life, the honey bee has great potential as a model for exploring the interactions between environment, behaviour and brain structure.
Octopamine modulates honey bee dance behavior
Publisher: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Date: 30-01-2007
Abstract: Honey bees communicate the location and desirability of valuable forage sites to their nestmates through an elaborate, symbolic “dance language.” The dance language is a uniquely complex communication system in invertebrates, and the neural mechanisms that generate dances are largely unknown. Here we show that treatments with controlled doses of the biogenic amine neuromodulator octopamine selectively increased the reporting of resource value in dances by forager bees. Oral and topical octopamine treatments modulated aspects of dances related to resource profitability in a dose-dependent manner. Dances for pollen and sucrose responded similarly to octopamine treatment, and these effects were eliminated by treatment with the octopamine antagonist mianserin. We propose that octopamine modulates the representation of floral rewards in dances by changing the processing of reward in the honey bee brain. Octopamine is known to modulate appetitive behavior in a range of solitary insects the role of octopamine in dance provides an ex le of how neural substrates can be adapted for new behavioral innovations in the process of social evolution.
How honey bees make fast and accurate decisions
Publisher: eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd
Date: 27-06-2023
DOI: 10.7554/ELIFE.86176
Abstract: Honey bee ecology demands they make both rapid and accurate assessments of which flowers are most likely to offer them nectar or pollen. To understand the mechanisms of honey bee decision-making, we examined their speed and accuracy of both flower acceptance and rejection decisions. We used a controlled flight arena that varied both the likelihood of a stimulus offering reward and punishment and the quality of evidence for stimuli. We found that the sophistication of honey bee decision-making rivalled that reported for primates. Their decisions were sensitive to both the quality and reliability of evidence. Acceptance responses had higher accuracy than rejection responses and were more sensitive to changes in available evidence and reward likelihood. Fast acceptances were more likely to be correct than slower acceptances a phenomenon also seen in primates and indicative that the evidence threshold for a decision changes dynamically with s ling time. To investigate the minimally sufficient circuitry required for these decision-making capacities, we developed a novel model of decision-making. Our model can be mapped to known pathways in the insect brain and is neurobiologically plausible. Our model proposes a system for robust autonomous decision-making with potential application in robotics.
Influence of flight time and flight environment on distance communication by dancing honey bees
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 11-2005
Did Prosociality Drive the Evolution of Homosexuality? Response to Luoto (2021)
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 29-07-2021
The involvement of a floral scent in plant-honeybee interaction
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 29-05-2022
DOI: 10.1007/S00114-022-01802-Z
Abstract: Volatile odors from flowers play an important role in plant-pollinator interaction. The honeybee is an important generalist pollinator of many plants. Here, we explored whether any components of the odors of a range of honeybee-pollinated plants are commonly involved in the interaction between plants and honeybees. We used a needle trap system to collect floral odors, and GC-MS analysis revealed nonanal was the only component scent detected in 12 different honeybee-pollinated flowers and not present in anemophilous plant species. For Ligustrum compactum, blooming flowers released significantly more nonanal than buds and faded flowers. For Sapium sebiferum, nonanal release through the day correlated with nectar secretion. Experimentally increasing nectar load in flowers of Sapium sebiferum, Ligustrum compactum, and Castanea henryi increased nonanal levels also. Nonanal was also detected in flower nectar and honeys from experimental colonies. Electroantennogram recordings and behavioral observations showed that untrained honeybees could detect and were strongly attracted to nonanal. We argue that nonanal persists in both honey and nectar odors facilitating a learned association between nonanal and food reward in honeybees.
The Value of Artificial Stimuli in Behavioral Research: Making the Case for Egg Rejection Studies in Avian Brood Parasitism
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 29-01-2015
DOI: 10.1111/ETH.12359
Prosociality and a sociosexual hypothesis for the evolution of same-sex attraction in humans
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Date: 16-01-2020
EchoVPR: Echo State Networks for Visual Place Recognition
Publisher: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
Date: 04-2022
Rapid behavioral maturation accelerates failure of stressed honey bee colonies
Publisher: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Date: 09-02-2015
Abstract: Honey bee colony death rates are unsustainably high. While many stressors have been identified that contribute to this problem, we do not know why colonies transition so rapidly from a state of apparent health to failure. It is well known that in idual bees react to nutritional and pathogen stresses by foraging precociously: our study explains how colony failure arises from the social responses of in idual bees to stress. We used radio tracking to monitor performance of bees and found that workers who begin foraging prematurely perform very poorly. This compounds the stresses on the colony and accelerates failure. We suggest how colonies at risk can be identified early, and the most effective interventions to prevent failure.
Effects of partial mixed rations and supplement amounts on milk production and composition, ruminal fermentation, bacterial communities, and ruminal acidosis
Publisher: American Dairy Science Association
Date: 09-2014
Abstract: Late-lactation Holstein cows (n=144) that were offered 15kg dry matter (DM)/cow per day of perennial ryegrass to graze were randomized into 24 groups of 6. Each group contained a fistulated cow and groups were allocated to 1 of 3 feeding strategies: (1) control (10 groups): cows were fed crushed wheat grain twice daily in the milking parlor and ryegrass silage at pasture (2) partial mixed ration (PMR 10 groups): PMR that was isoenergetic to the control diet and fed twice daily on a feed pad (3) PMR+canola (4 groups): a proportion of wheat in the PMR was replaced with canola meal to produce more estimated metabolizable protein than other groups. Supplements were fed to the control and PMR cows at 8, 10, 12, 14, or 16kg of DM/d, and to the PMR+canola cows at 14 or 16kg of DM/d. The PMR-fed cows had a lower incidence of ruminal acidosis compared with controls, and ruminal acidosis increased linearly and quadratically with supplement fed. Yield of milk fat was highest in the PMR+canola cows fed 14 or 16kg of total supplement DM/d, followed by the PMR-fed cows, and was lowest in controls fed at these amounts a similar trend was observed for milk fat percentage. Milk protein yield was higher in the PMR+canola cows fed 14 or 16kg of total supplement DM/d. Milk yield and milk protein percentage were not affected by feeding strategy. Milk, energy-corrected milk, and milk protein yields increased linearly with supplement fed, whereas milk fat percentage decreased. Ruminal butyrate and d-lactate concentrations, acetate-to-propionate ratio, (acetate + butyrate) ropionate, and pH increased in PMR-fed cows compared with controls for all supplement amounts, whereas propionate and valerate concentrations decreased. Ruminal acetate, butyrate, and ammonia concentrations, acetate-to-propionate ratio, (acetate + butyrate) ropionate, and pH linearly decreased with amounts of supplement fed. Ruminal propionate concentration linearly increased and valerate concentration linearly and quadratically increased with supplement feeding amount. The Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes were the dominant bacterial phyla identified. The Prevotellaceae, Ruminococcaceae, and Lachnospiraceae were the dominant bacterial families, regardless of feeding group, and were influenced by feeding strategy, supplement feeding amount, or both. The Veillonellaceae family decreased in relative abundance in PMR-fed cows compared with controls, and the Streptococcaeae and Lactobacillaceae families were present in only minor relative abundances, regardless of feeding group. Despite large among- and within-group variation in bacterial community composition, distinct bacterial communities occurred among feeding strategies, supplement amounts, and s le times and were associated with ruminal fermentation measures. Control cows fed 16kg of DM of total supplement per day had the most distinct ruminal bacterial community composition. Bacterial community composition was most significantly associated with supplement feeding amount and ammonia, butyrate, valerate, and propionate concentrations. Feeding supplements in a PMR reduced the incidence of ruminal acidosis and altered ruminal bacterial communities, regardless of supplement feeding amount, but did not result in increased milk measures compared with isoenergetic control diets component-fed to late-lactation cows.
Response to Luoto’s (2020) “Did Prosociality Drive the Evolution of Homosexuality?”
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 07-08-2020
Learning and Teaching Animal Handling at the University of Sydney's Faculty of Veterinary Science
Publisher: University of Toronto Press Inc. (UTPress)
Date: 12-2007
Abstract: Handling animals in veterinary contexts can present unique challenges that are difficult to anticipate. Skillful handling of animals in health and disease enhances client and patient relations, while inappropriate handling affects diagnostic parameters and is detrimental to a compromised patient's ability to cope. This article describes animal-handling opportunities in the veterinary curriculum at the University of Sydney, Australia, with an overview of the core handling skills required at graduation.
Honey bees increase their foraging performance and frequency of pollen trips through experience
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 05-2019
DOI: 10.1038/S41598-019-42677-X
Abstract: Honey bee foragers must supply their colony with a balance of pollen and nectar to sustain optimal colony development. Inter-in idual behavioural variability among foragers is observed in terms of activity levels and nectar vs . pollen collection, however the causes of such variation are still open questions. Here we explored the relationship between foraging activity and foraging performance in honey bees ( Apis mellifera ) by using an automated behaviour monitoring system to record mass on departing the hive, trip duration, presence of pollen on the hind legs and mass upon return to the hive, during the lifelong foraging career of in idual bees. In our colonies, only a subset of foragers collected pollen, and no bee exclusively foraged for pollen. A minority of very active bees (19% of the foragers) performed 50% of the colony’s total foraging trips, contributing to both pollen and nectar collection. Foraging performance (amount and rate of food collection) depended on bees’ in idual experience (amount of foraging trips completed). We argue that this reveals an important vulnerability for these social bees since environmental stressors that alter the activity and reduce the lifespan of foragers may prevent bees ever achieving maximal performance, thereby seriously compromising the effectiveness of the colony foraging force.
Pesticide dosing must be guided by ecological principles
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 07-09-2020
Metal pollutants have additive negative effects on honey bee cognition
Publisher: The Company of Biologists
Date: 18-05-2021
DOI: 10.1242/JEB.241869
Abstract: Environmental pollutants can exert sublethal deleterious effects on animals. These include disruption of cognitive functions underlying crucial behaviours. While agrochemicals have been identified as a major threat to pollinators, metal pollutants, which are often found in complex mixtures, have so far been overlooked. Here we assessed the impact of acute exposure to field-realistic concentrations of three common metal pollutants, lead, copper, arsenic, and their combinations, on honey bee appetitive learning and memory. All treatments involving single metals slowed down learning and disrupted memory retrieval at 24 h. Combinations of these metals had additive negative effects on both processes, suggesting common pathways of toxicity. Our results highlight the need to further assess the risks of metal pollution on invertebrates.
Honey bee (Apis mellifera) sociability and nestmate affiliation are dependent on the social environment experienced post-eclosion
Publisher: The Company of Biologists
Date: 2018
DOI: 10.1242/JEB.173054
Abstract: Underpinning the formation of a social group is the motivation of in iduals to aggregate and interact with conspecifics, termed sociability. Here we developed an assay, inspired by vertebrate approaches to evaluate social behaviours, to simultaneously examine the development of honey bee (Apis mellifera) sociability and nestmate affiliation. Focal bees were placed in a testing chamber, which was separated from groups of nestmates and conspecific non-nestmates by single-layer mesh screens. Assessing how much time bees spent contacting the two mesh screens allowed us to quantify simultaneously how much bees sought proximity and interaction with other bees, and their preference for nestmates over non-nestmates. Both sociability and nestmate affiliation could be detected soon after emergence as an adult. Isolation early in adult life impaired honey bee sociability but there was no evidence for a critical period for the development of the trait since isolated bees exposed to their hive for 24 hours when as old as 6 days still recovered high levels of sociability. Our data show that even for advanced social insects, sociability is a developmental phenomenon and experience-dependent.
Extent and complexity of RNA processing in honey bee queen and worker caste development
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 05-2022
Dynamic modelling of honey bee (Apis mellifera) colony growth and failure
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 09-2013
A systems approach to animal communication
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 16-03-2016
Abstract: Why animal communication displays are so complex and how they have evolved are active foci of research with a long and rich history. Progress towards an evolutionary analysis of signal complexity, however, has been constrained by a lack of hypotheses to explain similarities and/or differences in signalling systems across taxa. To address this, we advocate incorporating a systems approach into studies of animal communication—an approach that includes comprehensive experimental designs and data collection in combination with the implementation of systems concepts and tools. A systems approach evaluates overall display architecture, including how components interact to alter function, and how function varies in different states of the system. We provide a brief overview of the current state of the field, including a focus on select studies that highlight the dynamic nature of animal signalling. We then introduce core concepts from systems biology (redundancy, degeneracy, pluripotentiality, and modularity) and discuss their relationships with system properties (e.g. robustness, flexibility, evolvability). We translate systems concepts into an animal communication framework and accentuate their utility through a case study. Finally, we demonstrate how consideration of the system-level organization of animal communication poses new practical research questions that will aid our understanding of how and why animal displays are so complex.
A model of resource partitioning between foraging bees
Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: 13-11-2021
DOI: 10.1101/2020.11.13.381012
Abstract: Central place foraging pollinators tend to develop multi-destination routes (traplines) to visit patchily distributed plant resources. While the formation of traplines by in idual pollinators has been studied in details, how populations of foragers exploit resources in a common area is an open question, difficult to address experimentally. We explored conditions for the emergence of resource partitioning among traplining bees using agent-based models built from experimental data of bumblebees foraging on artificial flowers. In the models, bees learn to develop routes as a consequence of feedback loops that change their probabilities of moving between flowers. While a positive reinforcement of movements leading to rewarding flowers is sufficient for the emergence of resource partitioning when flowers are evenly distributed, addition of negative reinforcement of movements leading to unrewarding flowers is necessary when flowers are patchily distributed. In environments with more complex spatial structure, the negative experiences of in idual bees on flowers favour spatial segregation and efficient collective foraging.
Current progress in understanding the functions of the insect central complex
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2015
Cocaine Directly Impairs Memory Extinction and Alters Brain DNA Methylation Dynamics in Honey Bees
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Date: 13-02-2018
The best of both worlds
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 08-2022
DOI: 10.1016/J.COGNITION.2022.105118
Abstract: Much of human cognition involves two different types of reasoning that operate together. Type 1 reasoning systems are intuitive and fast, whereas Type 2 reasoning systems are reflective and slow. Why has our cognition evolved with these features? Both systems are coherent and in most ecological circumstances either alone is capable of coming up with the right answer most of the time. Neural tissue is costly, and thus far evolutionary models have struggled to identify a benefit of operating two systems of reasoning. To explore this issue we take a broad comparative perspective. We discuss how dual processes of cognition have enabled the emergence of selective attention in insects, transforming the learning capacities of these animals. Modern AIs using dual systems of learning are able to learn how their vast world works and how best to interact with it, allowing them to exceed human levels of performance in strategy games. We propose that the core benefits of dual processes of reasoning are to narrow down a problem space in order to focus cognitive resources most effectively.
A model of resource partitioning between foraging bees based on learning
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 28-07-2021
DOI: 10.1371/JOURNAL.PCBI.1009260
Abstract: Central place foraging pollinators tend to develop multi-destination routes (traplines) to exploit patchily distributed plant resources. While the formation of traplines by in idual pollinators has been studied in detail, how populations of foragers use resources in a common area is an open question, difficult to address experimentally. We explored conditions for the emergence of resource partitioning among traplining bees using agent-based models built from experimental data of bumblebees foraging on artificial flowers. In the models, bees learn to develop routes as a consequence of feedback loops that change their probabilities of moving between flowers. While a positive reinforcement of movements leading to rewarding flowers is sufficient for the emergence of resource partitioning when flowers are evenly distributed, the addition of a negative reinforcement of movements leading to unrewarding flowers is necessary when flowers are patchily distributed. In environments with more complex spatial structures, the negative experiences of in idual bees on flowers favour spatial segregation and efficient collective foraging. Our study fills a major gap in modelling pollinator behaviour and constitutes a unique tool to guide future experimental programs.
Effects of cocaine on honey bee dance behaviour
Publisher: The Company of Biologists
Date: 15-01-2009
DOI: 10.1242/JEB.025361
Abstract: The role of cocaine as an addictive drug of abuse in human society is hard to reconcile with its ecological role as a natural insecticide and plant-protective compound, preventing herbivory of coca plants(Erythroxylum spp.). This paradox is often explained by proposing a fundamental difference in mammalian and invertebrate responses to cocaine, but here we show effects of cocaine on honey bees (Apis mellifera L.)that parallel human responses. Forager honey bees perform symbolic dances to advertise the location and value of floral resources to their nest mates. Treatment with a low dose of cocaine increased the likelihood and rate of bees dancing after foraging but did not otherwise increase locomotor activity. This is consistent with cocaine causing forager bees to overestimate the value of the floral resources they collected. Further, cessation of chronic cocaine treatment caused a withdrawal-like response. These similarities likely occur because in both insects and mammals the biogenic amine neuromodulator systems disrupted by cocaine perform similar roles as modulators of reward and motor systems. Given these analogous responses to cocaine in insects and mammals, we propose an alternative solution to the paradox of cocaine reinforcement. Ecologically, cocaine is an effective plant defence compound viadisruption of herbivore motor control but, because the neurochemical systems targeted by cocaine also modulate reward processing, the reinforcing properties of cocaine occur as a `side effect'.
Current permissible levels of metal pollutants harm terrestrial invertebrates
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 07-2021
Don't kill, repel
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 06-2021
Evaluating the foraging performance of individual honey bees in different environments with automated field RFID systems
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 05-2022
DOI: 10.1002/ECS2.4088
Abstract: Measuring in idual foraging performance of pollinators is crucial to guide environmental policies that aim at enhancing pollinator health and pollination services. Automated systems have been developed to track the activity of in idual honey bees, but their deployment is extremely challenging. This has limited the assessment of in idual foraging performance in full‐strength bee colonies in the field. Most studies available to date have been constrained to use downsized bee colonies located in urban and suburban areas. Environmental policy‐making, on the other hand, needs a more comprehensive assessment of honey bee performance in a broader range of environments, including in remote agricultural and wild areas. Here, we detail a new autonomous field method to record high‐quality data on the flight ontogeny and foraging performance of honey bees, using radio frequency identification (RFID). We separate bee traffic into returning and exiting tunnels to improve data quality solving many previous limitations of RFID systems caused by traffic jams and the parasitic coupling of RFID antennae. With this method, we assembled a large RFID dataset made of control bee colonies from experiments conducted in different locations and seasons. We hope our results will be a starting point to understand how ontogenetic and environmental factors affect the in idual performance of honey bees and that our method will enable large‐scale replication of in idual pollinator performance studies.
Pheromonal control
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 13-06-2015
DOI: 10.1111/BRV.12123
Abstract: Pheromones are intraspecific chemical signals. They can have profound effects on the behaviour and/or physiology of the receiver, and it is still common to hear pheromones described as controlling of the behaviour of the receiver. The discussion of pheromonal control arose initially from a close association between hormones and pheromones in the comparative physiological literature, but the concept of a controlling pheromone is at odds with contemporary signal evolution theory, which predicts that a manipulative pheromonal signal negatively affecting the receiver's fitness should not be stable over evolutionary time. Here we discuss the meaning of pheromonal control, and the ecological circumstances by which it might be supported. We argue that in discussing pheromonal control it is important to differentiate between control applied to the effects of a pheromone on a receiver's physiology (proximate control), and control applied to the effects of a pheromone on a receiver's fitness (ultimate control). Critically, a pheromone signal affecting change in the receiver's behaviour or physiology need not necessarily manipulate the fitness of a receiver. In cases where pheromonal signalling does lead to a reduction in the fitness of the receiver, the signalling system would be stable if the pheromone were an honest signal of a social environment that disadvantages the receiver, and the physiological and behavioural changes observed in the receiver were an adaptive response to the new social circumstances communicated by the pheromone.
Effects of late miticide treatments on foraging and colony productivity of European honey bees (Apis mellifera)
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 20-01-2021
Honey bees selectively avoid difficult choices
Publisher: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Date: 04-11-2013
Abstract: Here we show that honey bees ( Apis mellifera ) can adaptively alter their behavior in a choice test in response to trial difficulty. Bees preferentially opt out of difficult trials and by doing so, improve their success rate. We discuss whether this choice involves assessing degree of uncertainty (considered a definition of basic metacognition) or whether this task might be solved by associative mechanisms. We propose a hypothesis for how uncertainty might be processed within the known circuitry of the insect brain to frame the concept of uncertainty as a topic for neurobiological analysis.
Preimaginal conditioning in Drosophila revisited
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 09-1999
Abstract concept learning in a simple neural network inspired by the insect brain
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 17-09-2018
Anaesthetising Drosophila for behavioural studies
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 04-2000
DOI: 10.1016/S0022-1910(99)00129-8
Abstract: The detrimental effect of anaesthesia by chilling or CO(2) on the mating behaviour of Drosophila melanogaster was investigated. Both agents significantly increased copulation latency, even when flies were given 20 h to recover from anaesthesia. CO(2) anaesthesia increased copulation latency more than anaesthesia by chilling. Delivery of a mechanical shock to the flies immediately before testing also increased copulation latency. These experiments demonstrate the sensitivity of insect behaviour to disruption by anaesthesia or rough handling. It is preferable to avoid anaesthetising flies that are to be used in behavioural studies.
What insects can tell us about the origins of consciousness
Publisher: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Date: 18-04-2016
Abstract: How, why, and when consciousness evolved remain hotly debated topics. Addressing these issues requires considering the distribution of consciousness across the animal phylogenetic tree. Here we propose that at least one invertebrate clade, the insects, has a capacity for the most basic aspect of consciousness: subjective experience. In vertebrates the capacity for subjective experience is supported by integrated structures in the midbrain that create a neural simulation of the state of the mobile animal in space. This integrated and egocentric representation of the world from the animal’s perspective is sufficient for subjective experience. Structures in the insect brain perform analogous functions. Therefore, we argue the insect brain also supports a capacity for subjective experience. In both vertebrates and insects this form of behavioral control system evolved as an efficient solution to basic problems of sensory reafference and true navigation. The brain structures that support subjective experience in vertebrates and insects are very different from each other, but in both cases they are basal to each clade. Hence we propose the origins of subjective experience can be traced to the Cambrian.
Non-numerical strategies used by bees to solve numerical cognition tasks
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 17-02-2021
Abstract: We examined how bees solve a visual discrimination task with stimuli commonly used in numerical cognition studies. Bees performed well on the task, but additional tests showed that they had learned continuous (non-numerical) cues. A network model using biologically plausible visual feature filtering and a simple associative rule was capable of learning the task using only continuous cues inherent in the training stimuli, with no numerical processing. This model was also able to reproduce behaviours that have been considered in other studies indicative of numerical cognition. Our results support the idea that a sense of magnitude may be more primitive and basic than a sense of number. Our findings highlight how problematic inadvertent continuous cues can be for studies of numerical cognition. This remains a deep issue within the field that requires increased vigilance and cleverness from the experimenter. We suggest ways of better assessing numerical cognition in non-speaking animals, including assessing the use of all alternative cues in one test, using cross-modal cues, analysing behavioural responses to detect underlying strategies, and finding the neural substrate.
Invertebrate learning and cognition
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 13-08-2013
DOI: 10.1002/WCS.1248
Abstract: Diverse invertebrate species have been used for studies of learning and comparative cognition. Although we have gained invaluable information from this, in this study we argue that our approach to comparative learning research is rather deficient. Generally invertebrate learning research has focused mainly on arthropods, and most of that within the Hymenoptera and Diptera. Any true comparative analysis of the distribution of comparative cognitive abilities across phyla is h ered by this bias, and more fundamentally by a reporting bias toward positive results. To understand the limits of learning and cognition for a species, knowing what animals cannot do is at least as important as reporting what they can. Finally, much more effort needs to be focused on the neurobiological analysis of different types of learning to truly understand the differences and similarities of learning types. In this review, we first give a brief overview of the various forms of learning in invertebrates. We also suggest areas where further study is needed for a more comparative understanding of learning. Finally, using what is known of learning in honeybees and the well-studied honeybee brain, we present a model of how various complex forms of learning may be accounted for with the same neural circuitry required for so-called simple learning types. At the neurobiological level, different learning phenomena are unlikely to be independent, and without considering this it is very difficult to correctly interpret the phylogenetic distribution of learning and cognitive abilities. WIREs Cogn Sci 2013, 4:561-582. doi: 10.1002/wcs.1248 For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website.
The Effects of Fat Body Tyramine Level on Gustatory Responsiveness of Honeybees (Apis mellifera) Differ between Behavioral Castes
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Date: 08-08-2017
Biogenic amine modulation of honey bee sociability and nestmate affiliation
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 25-10-2018
The capping pheromones and putative biosynthetic pathways in worker and drone larvae of honey bees Apis mellifera
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 11-10-2019
Modelling Food and Population Dynamics in Honey Bee Colonies
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 07-05-2013
Long-term dynamics of honey bee colonies following exposure to chemical stress
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 08-2019
DOI: 10.1016/J.SCITOTENV.2019.04.402
Abstract: Pesticide residues have been linked to reduced bee health and increased honey bee colony failure. Most research to date has investigated the role of pesticides on in idual honey bees, and it is still unclear how trace levels of pesticides change colony viability and productivity over seasonal time scales. To address this question we exposed standard bee colonies to chemical stressors known to have negative effects on in idual bees, and measured the productivity of bee colonies across a whole year in two environments: near Tucson Arizona and Sydney Australia. We exposed hives to a trace amount of the neonicotinoid imidacloprid and to the acaricide thymol, and measured capped brood, bee and honey production, as well as the temperature and foraging force of the colonies. The effect of imidacloprid on colony dynamics differed between the two environments. In Tucson we recorded a positive effect of imidacloprid treatment on bee and brood numbers. Thymol was associated with short-term negative effects on bee numbers at both locations, and may have affected colony survival at one location. The overall benefits of thymol for the colonies were unclear. We conclude that long-term and colony-level measures of the effects of agrochemicals are needed to properly understand risks to bees.
Managing patients with dual diagnosis in psychiatric practice
Publisher: Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health)
Date: 05-2012
Peak shift in honey bee olfactory learning
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 21-04-2014
DOI: 10.1007/S10071-014-0750-3
Abstract: If animals are trained with two similar stimuli such that one is rewarding (S+) and one punishing (S-), then following training animals show a greatest preference not for the S+, but for a novel stimulus that is slightly more different from the S- than the S+ is. This peak shift phenomenon has been widely reported for vertebrates and has recently been demonstrated for bumblebees and honey bees. To explore the nature of peak shift in invertebrates further, here we examined the properties of peak shift in honey bees trained in a free-flight olfactory learning assay. Hexanal and heptanol were mixed in different ratios to create a continuum of odour stimuli. Bees were trained to artificial flowers such that one odour mixture was rewarded with 2 molar sucrose (S+), and one punished with distasteful quinine (S-). After training, bees were given a non-rewarded preference test with five different mixtures of hexanal and heptanol. Following training bees' maximal preference was for an odour mixture slightly more distinct from the S- than the trained S+. This effect was not seen if bees were initially trained with two distinct odours, replicating the classic features of peak shift reported for vertebrates. We propose a conceptual model of how peak shift might occur in honey bees. We argue that peak shift does not require any higher level of processing than the known olfactory learning circuitry of the bee brain and suggest that peak shift is a very general feature of discrimination learning.
Cooperative defence operates by social modulation of biogenic amine levels in the honey bee brain
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 24-01-2018
Abstract: The defence of a society often requires that some specialized members coordinate to repel a threat at personal risk. This is especially true for honey bee guards, which defend the hive and may sacrifice their lives upon stinging. Central to this cooperative defensive response is the sting alarm pheromone, which has isoamyl acetate (IAA) as its main component. Although this defensive behaviour has been well described, the neural mechanisms triggered by IAA to coordinate stinging have long remained unknown. Here we show that IAA upregulates brain levels of serotonin and dopamine, thereby increasing the likelihood of an in idual bee to attack and sting. Pharmacological enhancement of the levels of both amines induces higher defensive responsiveness, while decreasing them via antagonists decreases stinging. Our results thus uncover the neural mechanism by which an alarm pheromone recruits in iduals to attack and repel a threat, and suggest that the alarm pheromone of honey bees acts on their response threshold rather than as a direct trigger.
Optic flow informs distance but not profitability for honeybees
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 16-12-2010
Abstract: How do flying insects monitor foraging efficiency? Honeybees ( Apis mellifera ) use optic flow information as an odometer to estimate distance travelled, but here we tested whether optic flow informs estimation of foraging costs also. Bees were trained to feeders in flight tunnels such that bees experienced the greatest optic flow en route to the feeder closest to the hive. Analyses of dance communication showed that, as expected, bees indicated the close feeder as being further, but they also indicated this feeder as the more profitable, and preferentially visited this feeder when given a choice. We show that honeybee estimates of foraging cost are not reliant on optic flow information. Rather, bees can assess distance and profitability independently and signal these aspects as separate elements of their dances. The optic flow signal is sensitive to the nature of the environment travelled by the bee, and is therefore not a good index of flight energetic costs, but it provides a good indication of distance travelled for purpose of navigation and communication, as long as the dancer and recruit travel similar routes. This study suggests an adaptive dual processing system in honeybees for communicating and navigating distance flown and for evaluating its energetic costs.
The utility of behavioral models and modules in molecular analyses of social behavior
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 07-07-2008
Cocaine affects foraging behaviour and biogenic amine modulated behavioural reflexes in honey bees
Publisher: PeerJ
Date: 13-11-2014
DOI: 10.7717/PEERJ.662
Physiology of reproductive worker honey bees (Apis mellifera)
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 29-12-2016
DOI: 10.1007/S00359-015-1061-0
Abstract: Reproductive and behavioural specialisations characterise advanced social insect societies. Typically, the honey bee (Apis mellifera) shows a pronounced reproductive ision of labour between worker and queen castes, and a clear ision of colony roles among workers. In a queenless condition, however, both of these aspects of social organisation break down. Queenless workers reproduce, forage and maintain their colony operating in a manner similar to communal bees, rather than as an advanced eusocial group. This plasticity in social organisation provides a natural experiment for exploring physiological mechanisms of ision of labour. We measured brain biogenic amine (BA) levels and abdominal fat body vitellogenin gene expression levels of workers in queenright and queenless colonies. Age, ovary activation and social environment influenced brain BA levels in honey bees. BA levels were most influenced by ovary activation state in queenless bees. Vitellogenin expression levels were higher in queenless workers than queenright workers, but in both colony environments vitellogenin expression was lower in foragers than non-foragers. We propose this plasticity in the interacting signalling systems that influence both reproductive and behavioural development allows queenless workers to deviate significantly from the typical worker bee reaction norm and develop as reproductively active behavioural generalists.
Honey bees solve a multi-comparison ranking task by probability matching
Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: 02-03-2020
DOI: 10.1101/2020.03.02.967661
Abstract: Honey bees forage on a range of flowers, all of which can vary unpredictably in the amount and type of rewards they offer. In this environment bees are challenged with maximising the resources they gather for their colony. That bees are effective foragers is clear, but how bees solve this type of complex multi-choice task is unknown. Here we challenged bees with a five-comparison choice task in which five colours differed in their probability of offering reward and punishment. The colours were ranked such that high ranked colours were more likely to offer reward, and the ranking was unambiguous. Bees choices in unrewarded tests matched their in idual experiences of reward and punishment of each colour, indicating bees solved this test not by comparing or ranking colours but by matching their preferences to their history of reinforcement for each colour. We used a computational model to explore the feasibility of this probability matching strategy for the honey bee brain. The model suggested a structure like the honey bee mushroom body with reinforcement-related plasticity at both input and output was sufficient for this cognitive strategy. We discuss how probability matching enables effective choices to be made without a need to compare any stimuli directly, and the utility and limitations of this simple cognitive strategy for foraging animals.
Effects of the juvenile hormone analogue methoprene on rate of behavioural development, foraging performance and navigation in honey bees (Apis mellifera)
Publisher: The Company of Biologists
Date: 2015
DOI: 10.1242/JEB.119198
Abstract: Worker honey bees change roles as they age as part of a hormonally regulated process of behavioural development that ends with a specialised foraging phase. The rate of behavioural development is highly plastic and responsive to changes in colony condition such that forager losses, disease or nutritional stresses accelerate behavioural development and cause an early onset of foraging in workers. It is not clear to what degree the behavioural development of workers can be accelerated without there being a cost in terms of reduced foraging performance. Here we compared the foraging performance of bees induced to accelerate their behavioural development by treatment with the juvenile hormone analogue methoprene, compared to controls that developed at a normal rate. Methoprene treatment accelerated both the onset of flight and foraging behaviour in workers, but it also reduced foraging span, the total time spent foraging and the number of completed foraging trips. Methoprene treatment did not alter performance in a short-range navigation task, however. These data indicate a limitation to the physiological plasticity of bees, and a trade off between forager performance and the speed at which bees begin foraging. Chronic stressors will be expected to reduce the mean age of the foraging force, and therefore also reduce the efficiency of the foraging force. This interaction may explain why honey bees colonies react to sustained stressors with non-linear population decline.
Drosophila divalent metal ion transporter Malvolio is required in dopaminergic neurons for feeding decisions
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 15-03-2017
DOI: 10.1111/GBB.12375
Transcriptomic, Morphological, and Developmental Comparison of Adult Honey Bee Queens (Apis mellifera) Reared From Eggs or Worker Larvae of Differing Ages
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 31-08-2020
DOI: 10.1093/JEE/TOAA188
Abstract: Queens and workers are very distinct phenotypes that develop from the same genome. Larvae from worker cells up to 3.5 d old can be transferred to larger queen cells and will subsequently be reared as queens and develop into functional queens. This has become a very popular queen rearing practice in contemporary apiculture. Here we used RNA-Seq to study the consequences of rearing queens from transplanted worker larvae on the transcriptome of the adult queens. We found that queens reared from transferred older larvae developed slower, weighted less, and had fewer ovarioles than queens reared from transferred eggs, indicating queens were cryptically intercaste. RNA-Seq analysis revealed differentially expressed genes between queens reared from transferred larvae compared with queens reared from transferred eggs: the older the larvae transferred, the greater the number of differentially expressed genes. Many of the differentially expressed genes had functions related to reproduction, longevity, immunity, or metabolism, suggesting that the health and long-term viability of queens was compromised. Our finds verify the previous studies that adult queens reared from older transferred larvae were of lower quality than queens reared from transferred eggs or younger larvae.
Reply to Adamo, Key et al., and Schilling and Cruse
Publisher: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Date: 28-06-2016
Effect of honey bee queen mating condition on worker ovary activation
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 29-12-2013
Heavy metal pollutants have additive negative effects on honey bee cognition
Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: 11-12-2021
DOI: 10.1101/2020.12.11.421305
Abstract: Environmental pollutants can exert sublethal deleterious effects on animals. These include disruption of cognitive functions underlying crucial behaviours. While agrochemicals have been identified as a major threat to pollinators, other compounds, such as heavy metals that are often found in complex mixtures, have largely been overlooked. Here, we assessed the impact of acute exposure to field-realistic concentrations of lead, copper, arsenic, and their combinations, on honey bee learning and memory. All treatments involving single metals slowed down appetitive learning and disrupted memory retrieval at 24 h. Importantly, combinations of these metals induced additive negative effects on both processes, suggesting common pathways of toxicity. Our results highlight the need to further assess the risks of heavy metal pollution on invertebrates and to their associated ecosystem services. Honey bees displayed reduced learning and memory performances following acute exposure to arsenic, copper or lead. Exposure to combinations of these metals induced additive effects.
Bumblebees retrieve only the ordinal ranking of foraging options when comparing memories obtained in distinct settings
Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: 07-04-2022
DOI: 10.1101/2022.04.05.487177
Abstract: Are animals’ preferences determined by absolute memories for options (e.g., reward sizes) or by their remembered ranking (better/worse)? The only studies examining this question suggest humans and starlings utilize memories for both absolute and relative information. We show that bumblebees make decisions using only memories of ordinal comparisons. After learning to discriminate pairs of different flowers by sucrose concentration, bumblebees preferred flowers (in novel pairings) with 1) higher ranking over equal absolute reward, 2) higher ranking over higher absolute reward, and 3) identical qualitative ranking but different quantitative ranking equally. Despite these suboptimal choices, bumblebees found the optimal option in an ecologically relevant foraging task. Our results illuminate a ergent mechanism of learned preferences that may have arisen from adaptations to bumblebees’ natural environment.
The roles of dopamine and related compounds in reward-seeking behavior across animal phyla
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Date: 2010
General stress responses in the honey bee
Publisher: MDPI AG
Date: 11-12-2012
A computational model of the integration of landmarks and motion in the insect central complex
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 27-02-2017
Using within-day hive weight changes to measure environmental effects on honey bee colonies
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 23-05-2018
The evolution of honey bee dance communication
Publisher: The Company of Biologists
Date: 12-2017
DOI: 10.1242/JEB.142778
Abstract: Honey bee dance has been intensively studied as a communication system, and yet we still know very little about the neurobiological mechanisms supporting how dances are produced and interpreted. Here, we discuss how new information on the functions of the central complex (CX) of the insect brain might shed some light on possible neural mechanisms of dance behaviour. We summarise the features of dance communication across the species of the genus Apis. We then propose that neural mechanisms of orientation and spatial processing found to be supported by the CX may function in dance communication also, and that this mechanistic link could explain some specific features of the dance form. This is purely a hypothesis, but in proposing this hypothesis, and how it might be investigated, we hope to stimulate new mechanistic analyses of dance communication.
Effects of commercial queen rearing methods on queen fecundity and genome methylation
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 23-10-2020
Neuropharmacological manipulation of restrained and free-flying honey bees, apis mellifera
Publisher: MyJove Corporation
Date: 26-11-2016
DOI: 10.3791/54695
Traces of a Neonicotinoid Induce Precocious Foraging and Reduce Foraging Performance in Honey Bees
Publisher: American Chemical Society (ACS)
Date: 07-2019
Abstract: There is increasing worldwide concern about the impacts of pesticide residues on honey bees and bee colony survival, but how sublethal effects of pesticides on bees might cause colony failure remains highly controversial, with field data giving very mixed results. To explore how trace levels of the neonicotinoid pesticide imidacloprid impacted colony foraging performance, we equipped bees with RFID tags that allowed us to track their lifetime flight behavior. One group of bees was exposed to a trace concentration (5 μg/kg, ppb) of imidacloprid in sugar syrup while in the larval stage. The imidacloprid residues caused bees to start foraging when younger as adults and perform fewer orientation flights, and reduced their lifetime foraging flights by 28%. The magnitude of the effects of a trace imidacloprid concentration delivered only during larval stage highlights the severity of pesticide residues for bee foraging performance. Our data suggest that neonicotinoids could impact colony function by imbalancing the normal age based ision of labor in a colony and reducing foraging efficiency. Understanding this mechanism will help the development of interventions to safeguard bee colony health.
How animal minds can help reveal the human mind
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 17-10-2022
Worker reproduction in honey-bees (Apis) and the anarchic syndrome
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 08-2001
Different Roles for Honey Bee Mushroom Bodies and Central Complex in Visual Learning of Colored Lights in an Aversive Conditioning Assay
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Date: 30-05-2017
Chronic exposure to trace lead impairs honey bee learning
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 04-2021
Neural mechanisms of reward in insects
Publisher: Annual Reviews
Date: 07-01-2013
DOI: 10.1146/ANNUREV-ENTO-120811-153631
Abstract: Reward seeking is a major motivator and organizer of behavior, and animals readily learn to modify their behavior to more easily obtain reward, or to respond to stimuli that are predictive of reward. Here, we compare what is known of reward processing mechanisms in insects with the well-studied vertebrate reward systems. In insects almost all of what is known of reward processing is derived from studies of reward learning. This is localized to the mushroom bodies and antennal lobes and organized by a network of hierarchically arranged modulatory circuits, especially those involving octopamine and dopamine. Neurogenetic studies with Drosophila have identified distinct circuit elements for reward learning, “wanting,” and possibly “liking” in Drosophila, suggesting a modular structure to the insect reward processing system, which broadly parallels that of the mammals in terms of functional organization.
Feeding and Amines Stimulate the Growth of the Salivary Gland following Short-Term Starvation in the Black Field Cricket, Teleogryllus commodus
Publisher: MDPI AG
Date: 25-05-2023
Abstract: The salivary gland of the black field cricket, Teleogryllus commodus Walker changed size between being starved and fed. Crickets without access to food for 72 h showed a reduction in both wet and dry mass of the glands compared with the glands from continuously fed animals at 72 h. Glands returned to size following ingestion within 10 min. Salivary glands of starved crickets (72 h) were incubated in saline containing either serotonin (5-HT) or dopamine (DA). Glands increased to pre-starvation size after 1 h incubation in situ with either 10−4 moles L−1 5-HT or 10−4 moles L−1 DA, although lower concentrations (10−5 moles L−1) did not affect gland size. From immunohistochemistry, amines appeared to shift from zymogen cells during starvation to parietal cells following feeding. High-performance liquid chromatography showed that serotonin concentration is higher than dopamine in the salivary gland removed from starved and fed crickets, but the quantity of these compounds was not dependent upon feeding state the amine quantities increased as gland size increased. Further work is necessary to determine what might be the stimulus for gland growth and if dopamine and serotonin play a role in the stimulation of salivary gland growth after a period of starvation.
A Maternal Effect on Queen Production in Honeybees
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 07-2019
DOI: 10.1016/J.CUB.2019.05.059
Abstract: Influences from the mother on offspring phenotype, known as maternal effects, are an important cause of adaptive phenotypic plasticity [1, 2]. Eusocial insects show dramatic phenotypic plasticity with morphologically distinct reproductive (queen) and worker castes [3, 4]. The dominant paradigm for honeybees (Apis mellifera) is that castes are environmentally rather than genetically determined, with the environment and diet of young larvae causing caste differentiation [5-9]. A role for maternal effects has not been considered, but here we show that egg size also influences queen development. Queens laid significantly bigger eggs in the larger queen cells than in the worker cells. Eggs laid in queen cells (QE), laid in worker cells (WE), and 2-day old larvae from worker cells (2L) were transferred to artificial queen cells to be reared as queens in a standardized environment. Newly emerged adult queens from QE were heavier than those from the other two groups and had more ovarioles, indicating a consequence of egg size for adult queen morphology. Gene expression analyses identified several significantly differentially expressed genes between newly emerged queens from QE and those from the other groups. These included a disproportionate number of genes involved in hormonal signaling, body development, and immune pathways, which are key traits differing between queens and workers. That egg size influences emerging queen morphology and physiology and that queens lay larger eggs in queen cells demonstrate both a maternal effect on the expression of the queen phenotype and a more active role for the queen in gyne production than has been realized previously.
Genital Evolution: Why Are Females Still Understudied?
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 06-05-2014
Recent advances in the use of phytochemicals to manage gastrointestinal oxidative stress in poultry and pigs
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Date: 25-06-2021
DOI: 10.1071/AN20667
Abstract: Plants are integral components of pig and poultry feed, and aside from their raw nutritive value, some phytochemicals contain bioactive compounds. The aim of the present paper is to review recent advances in the use of some phytochemicals in pig and poultry feed, focusing on the ex les of isoquinoline alkaloids, polyphenol rich sugarcane extracts and superoxide dismutase-rich melon pulp extracts. As gut health is critical for efficient production, the review will focus on recent results modulating oxidative stress within the gastrointestinal tract and the potential mechanisms of action.
The effects of brood ester pheromone on foraging behaviour and colony growth in apicultural settings
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 05-02-2014
Decision-making and action selection in insects: inspiration from vertebrate-based theories
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Date: 18-08-2015
The life and death of Hopkin's host selection principle
Publisher: No publisher found
Date: 2001
The diverging epigenomic landscapes of honeybee queens and workers revealed by multiomic sequencing
Publisher: Research Square Platform LLC
Date: 11-05-2022
DOI: 10.21203/RS.3.RS-1629662/V1
Abstract: The role of the epigenome in phenotypic plasticity is unclear presently. Here we used a multiomics approach (RNA-seq, ChIP-seq, ATAC-seq and Hi-C) to explore the nature of the epigenome in developing honeybee (Apis mellifera) workers and queens. Our data showed that the distinct queen and worker epigenomic landscapes form during the developmental process. Differences in gene expression between workers and queens precede other epigenomic modifications, but the epigenomic differences between workers and queens become more extensive and more layered during development. Genes known to be important for caste differentiation were more likely to be multiply differentially regulated by more than one epigenomic system than other differentially expressed genes. This indicates a multidimensional regulation of expression of key genes, presumably to canalise differences in gene expression. Our data indicate that the epigenome interacts with erging developmental trajectories rather than controlling them since different epigenomic landscapes form in concert with different developmental outcomes.
Transitions in cognitive evolution
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 05-07-2023
Abstract: The evolutionary history of animal cognition appears to involve a few major transitions: major changes that opened up new phylogenetic possibilities for cognition. Here, we review and contrast current transitional accounts of cognitive evolution. We discuss how an important feature of an evolutionary transition should be that it changes what is evolvable, so that the possible phenotypic spaces before and after a transition are different. We develop an account of cognitive evolution that focuses on how selection might act on the computational architecture of nervous systems. Selection for operational efficiency or robustness can drive changes in computational architecture that then make new types of cognition evolvable. We propose five major transitions in the evolution of animal nervous systems. Each of these gave rise to a different type of computational architecture that changed the evolvability of a lineage and allowed the evolution of new cognitive capacities. Transitional accounts have value in that they allow a big-picture perspective of macroevolution by focusing on changes that have had major consequences. For cognitive evolution, however, we argue it is most useful to focus on evolutionary changes to the nervous system that changed what is evolvable, rather than to focus on specific cognitive capacities.
Making a queen: an epigenetic analysis of the robustness of the honeybee (A pis mellifera) queen developmental pathway
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 06-02-2017
DOI: 10.1111/MEC.13990
Abstract: Specialized castes are considered a key reason for the evolutionary and ecological success of the social insect lifestyle. The most essential caste distinction is between the fertile queen and the sterile workers. Honeybee (Apis mellifera) workers and queens are not genetically distinct, rather these different phenotypes are the result of epigenetically regulated ergent developmental pathways. This is an important phenomenon in understanding the evolution of social insect societies. Here, we studied the genomic regulation of the worker and queen developmental pathways, and the robustness of the pathways by transplanting eggs or young larvae to queen cells. Queens could be successfully reared from worker larvae transplanted up to 3 days age, but queens reared from older worker larvae had decreased queen body size and weight compared with queens from transplanted eggs. Gene expression analysis showed that queens raised from worker larvae differed from queens raised from eggs in the expression of genes involved in the immune system, caste differentiation, body development and longevity. DNA methylation levels were also higher in 3-day-old queen larvae raised from worker larvae compared with that raised from transplanted eggs identifying a possible mechanism stabilizing the two developmental paths. We propose that environmental (nutrition and space) changes induced by the commercial rearing practice result in a suboptimal queen phenotype via epigenetic processes, which may potentially contribute to the evolution of queen-worker dimorphism. This also has potentially contributed to the global increase in honeybee colony failure rates.
Non-additive gene interactions underpin molecular and phenotypic responses in honey bee larvae exposed to imidacloprid and thymol
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 03-2022
DOI: 10.1016/J.SCITOTENV.2021.152614
Abstract: Understanding the cumulative risk of chemical mixtures at environmentally realistic concentrations is a key challenge in honey bee ecotoxicology. Ecotoxicogenomics, including transcriptomics, measures responses in in idual organisms at the molecular level which can provide insights into the mechanisms underlying phenotypic responses induced by one or more stressors and link impacts on in iduals to populations. Here, fifth instar honey bee larvae were s led from a previously reported field experiment exploring the phenotypic impacts of environmentally realistic chronic exposures of the pesticide imidacloprid (5 μg.kg
Neurogenomic and neurochemical dissection of honey bee dance communication
Publisher: Springer Netherlands
Date: 20-09-2012
Genetic correlation between amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and schizophrenia
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 21-03-2017
DOI: 10.1038/NCOMMS14774
Abstract: We have previously shown higher-than-expected rates of schizophrenia in relatives of patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), suggesting an aetiological relationship between the diseases. Here, we investigate the genetic relationship between ALS and schizophrenia using genome-wide association study data from over 100,000 unique in iduals. Using linkage disequilibrium score regression, we estimate the genetic correlation between ALS and schizophrenia to be 14.3% (7.05–21.6 P =1 × 10 −4 ) with schizophrenia polygenic risk scores explaining up to 0.12% of the variance in ALS ( P =8.4 × 10 −7 ). A modest increase in comorbidity of ALS and schizophrenia is expected given these findings (odds ratio 1.08–1.26) but this would require very large studies to observe epidemiologically. We identify five potential novel ALS-associated loci using conditional false discovery rate analysis. It is likely that shared neurobiological mechanisms between these two disorders will engender novel hypotheses in future preclinical and clinical studies.
Worker policing and worker reproduction in Apis cerana
Publisher: No publisher found
Date: 2001
Cocaine Tolerance in Honey Bees
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 31-05-2013
Pre-exposure affects the olfactory response of Drosophila melanogaster to menthol
Publisher: Test accounts
Date: 1999
Traces of a neonicotinoid pesticide stimulates activity in honey bee colonies, but not productivity
Publisher: Research Square Platform LLC
Date: 27-05-2021
DOI: 10.21203/RS.3.RS-497078/V1
Abstract: How neonicotinoid contamination effects honey bees remains controversial. Studies have yielded contradictory results, and few have examined effects on colony development. Here we report the results of a comprehensive five-year study of the effects of the neonicotinoid imidacloprid on honey bee colonies. Colonies fed 5 ng/g (ppb) imidacloprid showed increased brood production, lower temperature variability, higher CO2 production and had more foragers compared to control colonies. Even so, treatment did not affect adult bee numbers or average hive temperatures, and did not increase food stores, daily food acquisition or colony survivorship. Imidacloprid contamination increased colony metabolism without improving colony productivity, which is consistent with the pharmacological action of imidacloprid as a stimulant. Our findings explain why some studies have reported no, or even positive, effects of neonicotinoids. We provide an explanation for the erse effects of pesticide contamination on honey bees, and a thorough understanding of how colonies are impacted.
A comparison of digital gene expression profiling and methyl DNA immunoprecipitation as methods for gene discovery in honeybee (Apis mellifera) behavioural genomic analyses
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 09-09-2013
Bumblebees retrieve only the ordinal ranking of foraging options when comparing memories obtained in distinct settings
Publisher: eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd
Date: 27-09-2022
DOI: 10.7554/ELIFE.78525
Abstract: Are animals’ preferences determined by absolute memories for options (e.g. reward sizes) or by their remembered ranking (better/worse)? The only studies examining this question suggest humans and starlings utilise memories for both absolute and relative information. We show that bumblebees’ learned preferences are based only on memories of ordinal comparisons. A series of experiments showed that after learning to discriminate pairs of different flowers by sucrose concentration, bumblebees preferred flowers (in novel pairings) with (1) higher ranking over equal absolute reward, (2) higher ranking over higher absolute reward, and (3) identical qualitative ranking but different quantitative ranking equally. Bumblebees used absolute information in order to rank different flowers. However, additional experiments revealed that, even when ranking information was absent (i.e. bees learned one flower at a time), memories for absolute information were lost or could no longer be retrieved after at most 1 hr. Our results illuminate a ergent mechanism for bees (compared to starlings and humans) of learned preferences that may have arisen from different adaptations to their natural environment.
Selective modulation of task performance by octopamine in honey bee (Apis mellifera) division of labour
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 12-05-2005
DOI: 10.1007/S00359-005-0619-7
Abstract: Octopamine treatment has previously been shown to increase honey bee foraging behaviour. We determined the effects of octopamine on other tasks to learn how octopamine affects ision of labour in honey bee colonies. Octopamine treatment did not increase the rate of corpse removal from the hive, suggesting that elevated brain levels of octopamine do not act to increase the performance of all flight-related tasks. Octopamine treatment also did not increase attendance in the queen's retinue, suggesting that elevated brain levels of octopamine do not act to increase responsiveness to all olfactory stimuli. Consistent with these findings, octopamine treatment enhanced the foraging response to brood pheromone but not the cell capping response, a component of brood care. These results demonstrate a relatively specific form of neuromodulation by octopamine in the regulation of ision of labour in honey bee colonies.
How honey bees make fast and accurate decisions
Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: 03-01-2023
DOI: 10.1101/2023.01.02.522517
Abstract: Honey bee ecology demands they make both rapid and accurate assessments of which flowers are most likely to offer them nectar or pollen. To understand the mechanisms of honey bee decision-making we examined their speed and accuracy of both flower acceptance and rejection decisions. We used a controlled flight arena that varied both the likelihood of a stimulus offering reward and punishment and the quality of evidence for stimuli. We found that the sophistication of honey bee decision-making rivalled that reported for primates. Their decisions were sensitive to both the quality and reliability of evidence. Acceptance responses had higher accuracy than rejection responses and were more sensitive to changes in available evidence and reward likelihood. Fast acceptances were more likely to be correct than slower acceptances a phenomenon also seen in primates and indicative that the evidence threshold for a decision changes dynamically with s ling time. To investigate the minimally sufficient circuitry required for these decision-making capacities, we developed a novel model of decision-making. Our model can be mapped to known pathways in the insect brain and is neurobiologically plausible. Our model proposes a system for robust autonomous decision-making with potential application in robotics.
Behavior and molecular physiology of nurses of worker and queen larvae in honey bees (Apis mellifera)
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2014
Traces of a neonicotinoid pesticide stimulate different honey bee colony activities, but do not increase colony size or longevity
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 02-2022
DOI: 10.1016/J.ECOENV.2022.113202
Abstract: How neonicotinoid contamination affects honey bees remains controversial. Studies have yielded contradictory results, and few have examined effects on colony development. Here we report the results of a comprehensive five-year study of the effects of the neonicotinoid imidacloprid on honey bee colonies. Colonies fed 5 ng/g (ppb) imidacloprid in sugar syrup showed increased brood production, lower temperature variability, higher CO
Altruistic behavior by egg-laying worker honeybees
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 08-2013
DOI: 10.1016/J.CUB.2013.06.045
Abstract: If a honeybee (Apis mellifera) colony loses its queen, worker bees develop their ovaries and produce male offspring [1]. Kin selection theory predicts that the degree of altruism in queenless colonies should be reduced because the relatedness of workers to a hivemate's offspring is less in queenless colonies than it is to the daughters of the queen in queenright colonies [2-4]. To explore this hypothesis, we examined the behavior and physiology of queenless egg-laying workers. Queenless bees engaged in both personal reproduction and the social foraging and defense tasks that benefited their colony. Laying workers also had larger brood-food-producing and wax glands, showing metabolic investments in both colony maintenance and personal reproduction. Whereas in queenright colonies there is a very clear age-based pattern of ision of labor between workers, in queenless colonies the degree of in idual specialization was much reduced. Queenless colonies functioned as a collective of reproductive and behaviorally generalist bees that cooperatively maintained and defended their nest. This social structure is similar to that observed in a number of primitively social bee species [5]. Laying workers therefore show a mix of selfish personal reproduction and altruistic cooperative behavior, and the queenless state reveals previously unrecognized plasticity in honeybee social organization.
Stress decreases pollen foraging performance in honeybees
Publisher: The Company of Biologists
Date: 2018
DOI: 10.1242/JEB.171470
Abstract: For honeybees, foraging is energetically demanding. Here we examined whether stressors, which increase metabolic demands, can impair foraging performance. A controlled non-pathogenic stressor (immune challenge) resulted in a change in foraging preferences of bees. It reduced pollen foraging, and increased the duration of trips in pollen foragers. Stress also reduced the amount of octopamine in the brain of pollen foragers (a biogenic amine involved in the regulation of foraging and flight behaviour in insects). According to the literature, flight metabolic rate is higher during pollen foraging than nectar foraging, and nectar gives a higher energetic return relative to the foraging effort when compared to pollen. We thus propose that stress might be particularly detrimental to the performance of pollen foragers, and stressed bees prefer the energy-rich resource of nectar. In conclusion, stress, even at low levels, could have consequences on both bee foraging behaviour and thereby the nutritional balance of the colony.
Inter-individual variability in the foraging behaviour of traplining bumblebees
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 04-07-2017
DOI: 10.1038/S41598-017-04919-8
Abstract: Workers of social insects, such as bees, ants and wasps, show some degree of inter-in idual variability in decision-making, learning and memory. Whether these natural cognitive differences translate into distinct adaptive behavioural strategies is virtually unknown. Here we examined variability in the movement patterns of bumblebee foragers establishing routes between artificial flowers. We recorded all flower visitation sequences performed by 29 bees tested for 20 consecutive foraging bouts in three experimental arrays, each characterised by a unique spatial configuration of artificial flowers and three-dimensional landmarks. All bees started to develop efficient routes as they accumulated foraging experience in each array, and showed consistent inter-in idual differences in their levels of route fidelity and foraging performance, as measured by travel speed and the frequency of revisits to flowers. While the tendency of bees to repeat the same route was influenced by their colony origin, foraging performance was correlated to body size. The largest foragers travelled faster and made less revisits to empty flowers. We discuss the possible adaptive value of such inter-in idual variability within the forager caste for optimisation of colony-level foraging performances in social pollinators.
High dietary vitamin E and selenium improves feed intake and weight gain of finisher lambs and maintains redox homeostasis under hot conditions
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 04-2016
Relationship between brain plasticity, learning and foraging performance in honey bees
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 30-04-2018
A Quantitative Model of Honey Bee Colony Population Dynamics
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 18-04-2011
Assessment of flight activity and homing ability in Asian and European honey bee species, Apis cerana and Apis mellifera, measured with radio frequency tags
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 19-07-2013
A Hybrid Compact Neural Architecture for Visual Place Recognition
Publisher: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
Date: 04-2020
Comment on “Food wanting is mediated by transient activation of dopaminergic signaling in the honey bee brain”
Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Date: 04-08-2023
Abstract: Huang et al . ( 1 ) make an exciting claim about a human-like dopamine-regulated neuromodulatory mechanism underlying food-seeking behavior in honey bees. Their claim is based on experiments designed to measure brain biogenic amine levels and manipulate receptor activity. We have concerns that need to be addressed before broad acceptance of their results and the interpretation provided.
A comparison of honeybee (Apis mellifera) queen, worker and drone larvae by RNA‐Seq
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 15-12-2017
Abstract: Honeybees (Apis mellifera) have haplodiploid sex determination: males develop from unfertilized eggs and females develop from fertilized ones. The differences in larval food also determine the development of females. Here we compared the total somatic gene expression profiles of 2-day and 4-day-old drone, queen and worker larvae by RNA-Seq. The results from a co-expression network analysis on all expressed genes showed that 2-day-old drone and worker larvae were closer in gene expression profiles than 2-day-old queen larvae. This indicated that for young larvae (2-day-old) environmental factors such as larval diet have a greater effect on gene expression profiles than ploidy or sex determination. Drones had the most distinct gene expression profiles at the 4-day larval stage, suggesting that haploidy, or sex dramatically affects the gene expression of honeybee larvae. Drone larvae showed fewer differences in gene expression profiles at the 2-day and 4-day time points than the worker and queen larval comparisons (598 against 1190 and 1181), suggesting a different pattern of gene expression regulation during the larval development of haploid males compared to diploid females. This study indicates that early in development the queen caste has the most distinct gene expression profile, perhaps reflecting the very rapid growth and morphological specialization of this caste compared to workers and drones. Later in development the haploid male drones have the most distinct gene expression profile, perhaps reflecting the influence of ploidy or sex determination on gene expression.
Honey bees cannot sense harmful concentrations of metal pollutants in food
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 06-2022
DOI: 10.1016/J.CHEMOSPHERE.2022.134089
Abstract: Whether animals can actively avoid food contaminated with harmful compounds through taste is key to assess their ecotoxicological risks. Here, we investigated the ability of honey bees to perceive and avoid food resources contaminated with common metal pollutants known to impair behaviour at low concentrations. In laboratory assays, bees did not discriminate food contaminated with arsenic, lead or zinc and ingested it readily, up to estimated doses of 929.1 μg g
The miticide thymol in combination with trace levels of the neonicotinoid imidacloprid reduces visual learning performance in honey bees (Apis mellifera)
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 27-02-2020
Honeybees solve a multi-comparison ranking task by probability matching
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 02-09-2020
Abstract: Honeybees forage on erse flowers which vary in the amount and type of rewards they offer, and bees are challenged with maximizing the resources they gather for their colony. That bees are effective foragers is clear, but how bees solve this type of complex multi-choice task is unknown. Here, we set bees a five-comparison choice task in which five colours differed in their probability of offering reward and punishment. The colours were ranked such that high ranked colours were more likely to offer reward, and the ranking was unambiguous. Bees' choices in unrewarded tests matched their in idual experiences of reward and punishment of each colour, indicating bees solved this test not by comparing or ranking colours but by basing their colour choices on their history of reinforcement for each colour. Computational modelling suggests a structure like the honeybee mushroom body with reinforcement-related plasticity at both input and output can be sufficient for this cognitive strategy. We discuss how probability matching enables effective choices to be made without a need to compare any stimuli directly, and the use and limitations of this simple cognitive strategy for foraging animals.
Let's talk about sex
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 08-2012
DOI: 10.1038/488151A
Differences in the phototaxis of pollen and nectar foraging honey bees are related to their octopamine brain titers
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Date: 28-03-2014
Octopamine modulates responsiveness to foraging-related stimuli in honey bees (Apis mellifera)
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 09-2002
DOI: 10.1007/S00359-002-0335-5
Abstract: The biogenic amine neurochemical octopamine is involved in the onset of foraging behaviour in honey bees. We tested the hypothesis that octopamine influences honey bee behavioural development by modulating responsiveness to task-related stimuli. We examined the effect of octopamine treatment on responsiveness to brood pheromone (an activator of foraging) and to the presence of older bees in the colony (an inhibitor of foraging in young bees). Octopamine treatment increased responsiveness to brood pheromone and decreased responsiveness to social inhibition. These results identify octopamine both as an important source of variation in response thresholds and as a modulator of pheromonal communication in insect societies. We speculate that octopamine plays more than one role in the organisation of behavioural development indicating a very high level of integration between the neurochemical system and the generation of complex behaviour.
Vertical Lobes of the Mushroom Bodies Are Essential for View-Based Navigation in Australian Myrmecia Ants
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 09-2020
Division of labor in the honey bee (Apis mellifera): the role of tyramine β-hydroxylase
Publisher: The Company of Biologists
Date: 15-07-2006
DOI: 10.1242/JEB.02296
Abstract: The biogenic amine octopamine (OA) is involved in the regulation of honey bee behavioral development brain levels are higher in foragers than bees working in the hive, especially in the antennal lobes, and treatment causes precocious foraging. We measured brain mRNA and protein activity of tyramineβ-hydroxylase (T βh), an enzyme vital for OA synthesis, in order to begin testing the hypothesis that this enzyme is responsible for the rising levels of OA during honey bee behavioral development. Brain OA levels were greater in forager bees than in bees engaged in brood care, as in previous studies, but T βh activity was not correlated with bee behavior. Tβh mRNA levels, however, did closely track OA levels during behavioral development, and T βh mRNA was localized to previously identified octopaminergic neurons in the bee brain. Our results show that the transcription of this neurotransmitter synthetic enzyme is associated with regulation of social behavior in honey bees, but other factors may be involved.
Extent and complexity of RNA processing in the development of honey bee queen and worker castes revealed by Nanopore direct RNA sequencing
Publisher: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: 09-08-2021
DOI: 10.1101/2021.08.08.455492
Abstract: The distinct honey bee ( Apis mellifera ) worker and queen castes have become a model for the study of genomic mechanisms of phenotypic plasticity. Prior studies have explored differences in gene expression and methylation during development of the two castes, but thus far no study has performed a genome-wide analysis of differences in RNA processing. To address this here we performed a Nanopore-based direct RNA sequencing with exceptionally long reads to compare the mRNA transcripts between honey bee queen and workers at three points during their larval development. We found thousands of significantly differentially expressed isoforms (DEIs) between queen and worker larvae. Most DEIs contained alternative splicing, and many of them contained at least two types of alternative splicing patterns, indicating complex RNA processing in honey bee caste differentiation. We found a negative correlation between poly(A) length and DEI expression, suggesting that poly(A) tails participate in the regulation of isoform expression. Hundreds of isoforms uniquely expressed in either queens or workers during their larval development, and isoforms were expressed at different points in queen and worker larval development demonstrating a dynamic relationship between isoform expression and developmental mechanisms. These findings show the full complexity of RNA processing and transcript expression in honey bee phenotypic plasticity.
Linkage disequilibrium levels in Bos indicus and Bos taurus cattle using medium and high density SNP chip data and different minor allele frequency distributions
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 08-2014
Age- and behaviour-related changes in the expression of biogenic amine receptor genes in the antennae of honey bees (Apis mellifera)
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 29-08-2012
DOI: 10.1007/S00359-012-0745-Y
Abstract: We recently identified changes in amine-receptor gene expression in the antennae of the honey bee that correlate with shifts in the behavioural responsiveness of worker bees towards queen mandibular pheromone. Here we examine whether variations in expression of amine-receptor genes are related to age and/or to behavioural state. Colonies with a normal age structure were used to collect bees of different ages, as well as pollen foragers of unknown age. Single- and double-cohort colonies were established also to generate nurses and pollen foragers of the same age. Amdop1 was the only gene examined that showed no significant change in expression levels across the age groups tested. However, expression of this gene was significantly higher in 6-day-old nurses than in pollen foragers of the same age. Levels of expression of Amdop2 were very variable, particularly during the first week of adult life, and showed no correlation with nursing or foraging behaviour. Amdop3 and Amtyr1 expression levels changed dramatically with age. Interestingly, Amtyr1 expression was significantly higher in 15-day-old pollen foragers than in same-age nurses, whereas the opposite was true for Amoa1. While Amoa1 expression in the antennae was lower in 6- and 15-day-old pollen foragers than in nurses of the same age, differences in gene expression levels between nurses and pollen foragers could not be detected in 22-day-old bees. Our data show dynamic modulation of gene expression in the antennae of worker bees and suggest a peripheral role for biogenic amines in regulating behavioural plasticity in the honey bee.
Epigenetics and the evolution of instincts
Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Date: 07-04-2017
Abstract: Instincts may evolve from learning and share the same cellular and molecular mechanisms
Author response: How honey bees make fast and accurate decisions
Publisher: eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd
Date: 18-05-2023
Death of the bee hive
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 08-2015
DOI: 10.1016/J.COIS.2015.04.004
Abstract: Since 2007 honey bee colony failure rates overwinter have averaged about 30% across much of North America. In addition, cases of extremely rapid colony failure have been reported, which has been termed colony collapse disorder. Both phenomena result from an increase in the frequency and intensity of chronic diseases and environmental stressors. Colonies are often challenged by multiple stressors, which can interact: for ex le, pesticides can enhance disease transmission in colonies. Colonies may be particularly vulnerable to sublethal effects of pathogens and pesticides since colony functions are compromised whether a stressor kills workers, or causes them to fail at foraging. Modelling provides a way to understand the processes of colony failure by relating impacts of stressors to colony-level functions.
Negative impact of manganese on honeybee foraging
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 03-2015
Abstract: Anthropogenic accumulation of metals such as manganese is a well-established health risk factor for vertebrates. By contrast, the long-term impact of these contaminants on invertebrates is mostly unknown. Here, we demonstrate that manganese ingestion alters brain biogenic amine levels in honeybees and fruit flies. Furthermore, we show that manganese exposure negatively affects foraging behaviour in the honeybee, an economically important pollinator. Our findings indicate that in addition to its direct impact on human health, the common industrial contaminant manganese might also have indirect environmental and economical impacts via the modulation of neuronal and behavioural functions in economically important insects.
Epigenomics and the concept of degeneracy in biological systems
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 12-12-2013
DOI: 10.1093/BFGP/ELT050
The frontiers of insect cognition
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 08-2017
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University Of Cambridge
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
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