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Visuo-motor biases in buff-tailed bumblebees (Bombus terrestris)
- Source :
- Laterality. 26:55-70
- Publication Year :
- 2020
- Publisher :
- Informa UK Limited, 2020.
-
Abstract
- Bees provide a good model to investigate the evolution of lateralization. So far, most studies focused on olfactory learning and memories in tethered bees. This study investigated possible behavioural biases in free-flying buff-tailed bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) by analysing their turning decisions in a T-maze. Bees of various size were trained to associate a syrup reward with a blue target placed at the centre of the T-maze. The bees were then tested over 16 trials by presenting them with blue targets at the end of the maze’s arms. The maze was rotated 180° after the first 8 trials to control for environmental factors. The number of turnings to the left and right arms were analysed. The bees sampled exhibited a population-level rightward turning bias. As bumblebees vary significantly in size with large bees being better learners than smaller ones, we measured the thorax width to identify a possible relationship between size and bias. No significant correlation was identified. This study shows that bees present lateralization in a visuo-motor task that mimics their foraging behaviour, indicating a possible specialization of the right side of the nervous system in routine tasks.
- Subjects :
- C300 Zoology
biology
fungi
05 social sciences
Foraging
General Medicine
C340 Entomology
T-maze
biology.organism_classification
050105 experimental psychology
Lateralization of brain function
03 medical and health sciences
0302 clinical medicine
Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)
Bombus terrestris
D300 Animal Science
0501 psychology and cognitive sciences
Olfactory Learning
030217 neurology & neurosurgery
General Psychology
Cognitive psychology
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 14640678 and 1357650X
- Volume :
- 26
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Laterality
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....ba96359add3bba2f6a579112f7806d88