graphic

The world can be a pretty dangerous place, and a worker honey bee not only needs to learn how to carry out her specific tasks as a nurse or forager but also to avoid and/or escape threats such as pesticides and predators. However, these risks aren't limited to female workers; male drones also have to learn to identify and be wary of potential dangers. It's therefore surprising that there are very few studies on aversive learning in honey bees, so Charles Abramson, from Oklahoma State University, USA, decide to investigate with the help of Christopher Dinges, an undergraduate student (p. 4123).

Abramson and Dinges started by testing how well worker and drone honey bees learnt to escape an aversive stimulus. To do this, the duo put the insect students into a shuttlebox, which was split into two halves by a light beam across the centreline. Every 30 s a little jolt of electricity was administered to the entire shuttlebox, and the bees could only terminate the shock by ‘escaping’ and crossing the central light beam, which deactivated the shock. While both workers and drones learnt that ‘escaping’ stopped the disagreeable zaps, workers had higher response rates and responded faster than their male relatives.

Next, the pair turned to a punishment setup, where the electric shock was continuously administered to one-half of the shuttlebox. Abramson wanted to see whether the bees would recognise that entering one half resulted in this electric punishment and whether they would accordingly stop shuttling back and forth along the length of the shuttlebox. Again, workers performed better than the drones, and avoided shock for longer. Nonetheless, the drones did seem to be learning. Tinting the shock side with blue light did not help the drones improve their learning skills, but when the shock was paired with a yellow backdrop, drones and workers did as well as each other.

While male drones didn't seem to learn as well as the workers, it might not just be down to sex. Workers are highly social, whereas drones are more solitary. By using males and females in learning studies, Abramson hopes that we can begin to work out the relationship between sociality and complex behaviours such as learning.

Dinges
C. W.
,
Avalos
A.
,
Abramson
C. I.
,
Craig
D. P. A.
,
Austin
Z. M.
,
Varnon
C. A.
,
Nur Dal
F.
,
Giray
T.
,
Wells
H.
(
2013
).
Aversive conditioning in honey bees (Apis mellifera anatolica): a comparison of drones and workers
.
J. Exp. Biol.
216
,
4123
-
4133
.