Learning and cognition in honeybees

University Of Hawaii, Honolulu

Investigators

Abstract

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). Honeybees are in the news these days as they are increasingly threatened by parasites and disease. The news is not all bad, however. Scientific advances as well as the growing awareness of their place in the food chain have coalesced to produce an explosion of new information about honeybees. Key to addressing the problems of honeybees is an understanding of their behavior. With their rich repertoire of sensory abilities along with an insatiable motivation to seek food, honeybees have shown a capacity to learn that is beyond anyone's expectations. This project includes studies of honeybee memory, taste, and perception with behavioral measures of both free-flying foragers as well as restrained bees. The work on short-term memory will focus on what they remember, how long they remember it, and how they use it. The results will provide a better understanding of honeybee foraging strategies. The work on taste will determine the range of tastes they can detect and also will determine which are aversive. The results will provide practical insights about honeybee flower preferences and their ability to avoid toxic or pesticide-treated plants. The work on perception will analyze how honeybees use visual relationships in their choices of flowers or patches of flowers. Overall findings will expand our knowledge of honeybee foraging behavior, and specific findings are expected to directly influence strategies for improving the health and productivity of honeybees, the critical link in the world's food industry. The research training of high school, undergraduate, and graduate students also is a major part of this project. The honeybee work easily captivates students' interest, and the techniques are accessible to aspiring researchers. Additional educational activities will include interactions with beekeepers, agricultural specialists, science teachers, elementary school children, and the media as well as others interested in honeybees.