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Acquisition of a time-memory in forager honey bees

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Abstract

Forager honey bees can associate the time of day with the presence of food at locations outside the hive. It is thought that this time-memory enables the bee to make a spatio-temporal match between its behavior and floral nectar secretion rhythms. Despite a long tradition of research, the mechanisms by which the time-memory becomes established are unknown. We investigated the influences of two experiential factors on the acquisition of time-memory: (1) the number of collecting visits made by the forager within a feeding bout during a restricted time of day and (2) the number of days of exposure to the restricted feeding time. Our results indicate that these two factors control different processes. The number of days of experience influences the temporal accuracy of reconnaissance behavior to the food source. The cumulative number of collecting visits within the feeding bouts has no apparent effect on time-accuracy but, instead, determines the probability of exhibiting food-anticipatory behavior and, if that overt behavior is performed, the intensity of its expression.

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Acknowledgments

We are deeply indebted to A. Bruno, T.J. Metcalf, S.N. Miller, M.A. Moore, L. Slemp, W.E. Smith, and A. Williams for generous help with the primary experiments and to A.A. Edge, S. Boyd, J.N. Johnson, and B.N. Van Nest for assistance with the experiments detailing post-training visits on training days. We also thank four anonymous reviewers for valuable suggestions in improving the manuscript. This work was partially supported by funds from the National Research Initiative of the USDA Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service, Grant No. 2006-35302-17278. The present study complies with the current laws of the country in which the experiments were performed, including the ‘Principles of Animal Care’, Publication No. 86-23, revised 1985 of the National Institutes of Health.

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  1. Department of Biological Sciences, East Tennessee State University, Box 70703, Johnson City, TN, 37614, USA

    Darrell Moore & Patrick Doherty

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  1. Darrell Moore
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  2. Patrick Doherty
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Correspondence to Darrell Moore.

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This paper is dedicated to the memory of Prof. James L. Larimer.

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Moore, D., Doherty, P. Acquisition of a time-memory in forager honey bees. J Comp Physiol A 195, 741–751 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-009-0450-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-009-0450-7

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