# The Influence of Prior Learning Experience on Pollinator Choice: An Experiment Using



## AmericasBeekeeper (Jan 24, 2010)

The Influence of Prior Learning Experience on Pollinator Choice: An Experiment Using Bumblebees on Two Wild Floral Types of Antirrhinum majus
Understanding how pollinator behavior may influence pollen transmission across floral types is a major challenge, as pollinator decision depends on a complex range of environmental cues and prior experience. Here we report an experiment using the plant Antirrhinum majus and the bumblebee Bombus terrestris to investigate how prior learning experience may affect pollinator preferences between floral types when these are presented together. We trained naive bumblebees to forage freely on flowering individuals of either A. majus pseudomajus (magenta flowers) or A. majus striatum (yellow flowers) in a flight cage. We then used a Y-maze device to expose trained bumblebees to a dual choice between the floral types. We tested the influence of training on their choice, depending on the type of plant signals available (visual signals, olfactory signals, or both). Bumblebees had no innate preference for either subspecies. Bumblebees trained on the yellow-flowered subspecies later preferred the yellow type, even when only visual or only olfactory signals were available, and their preference was not reinforced when both signal types were available. In contrast, bumblebees trained on the magenta-flowered subspecies showed no further preference between floral types and took slightly more time to make their choice. Since pollinator constancy has been observed in wild populations of A. majus with mixed floral types, we suggest that such constancy likely relies on short-term memory rather than acquired preference through long-term memory induced by prior learning.
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0130225


----------



## Phoebee (Jan 29, 2014)

Bumblebees don't store nectar in any significant quantity, right?

I've wondered for the last year or so if honeybees use stored honey from the previous season as a sort of hive library, a memory of what was good last year. Obviously, a bee that has an adult life expectancy of a little over a month would not remember last summer's favorites, but a stroll thru the comb might have some olfactory cues. Would this be like the training aids used in the bumblebee study?


----------



## aunt betty (May 4, 2015)

I'd follow my nose if I were a bee but I'd keep ending up at bacon scented flowers.


----------

