Recognition and Avoidance of Contaminated Flowers by Foraging Bumblebees (Bombus terrestris)
نویسندگان
چکیده
Bumblebee colonies are founded by a single-mated queen. Due to this life history trait, bumblebees are more susceptible to parasites and diseases than polyandrous and/or polygynous social insects. A greater resistance towards parasites is shown when the genetic variability within a colony is increased. The parasite resistance may be divided into different levels regarding the step of the parasite infection (e.g. parasite uptake, parasite intake, parasite's establishment in the nest, parasite transmission). We investigate the prophylactic behaviour of bumblebees. Bumblebees were observed during their foraging flights on two artificial flowers; one of these was contaminated by Crithidia bombi, a naturally occurring gut parasite of bumblebees (in a control experiment the non-specific pathogen Escherichia coli was used). For C. bombi, bumblebees were preferentially observed feeding on the non-contaminated flower. Whereas for E. coli, the number of visits between flowers was the same, bumblebees spent more time feeding on the non-contaminated flower. These results demonstrate the ability of bumblebees to recognise the contamination of food sources. In addition, bumblebees have a stronger preference for the non-contaminated flower when C. bombi is present in the other flower than with E. coli which might be explained as an adaptive behaviour of bumblebees towards this specific gut parasite. It seems that the more specific the parasite is, the more it reduces the reward of the flower.
منابع مشابه
Predator crypsis enhances behaviourally mediated indirect effects on plants by altering bumblebee foraging preferences.
Predators of pollinators can influence pollination services and plant fitness via both consumptive (reducing pollinator density) and non-consumptive (altering pollinator behaviour) effects. However, a better knowledge of the mechanisms underlying behaviourally mediated indirect effects of predators is necessary to properly understand their role in community dynamics. We used the tripartite rela...
متن کاملRepellent scent-marking of ̄owers by a guild of foraging bumblebees (Bombus spp.)
We have found that foraging bumblebees (Bombus hortorum, B. pascuorum, B. pratorum and B. terrestris) not only avoid ̄owers of Symphytum ocinale that have recently been visited by conspeci®cs but also those that have been recently visited by heterospeci®cs. We propose that the decision whether to reject or accept a ̄ower is in ̄uenced by a chemical odour that is left on the corolla by a forager...
متن کاملForaging bumblebees avoid flowers already visited by conspecifics or by other bumblebee species
Honey bees, Apis mellifera, use short-lived repellent scent marks to distinguish and reject flowers that have recently been visited by themselves or by siblings, and so save time that would otherwise be spent in probing empty flowers. Conversely, both honey bees and bumblebees, Bombus spp., can mark rewarding flowers with scent marks that promote probing by conspecifics. We examined detection o...
متن کاملMultimodal cues provide redundant information for bumblebees when the stimulus is visually salient, but facilitate red target detection in a naturalistic background
Our understanding of how floral visitors integrate visual and olfactory cues when seeking food, and how background complexity affects flower detection is limited. Here, we aimed to understand the use of visual and olfactory information for bumblebees (Bombus terrestris terrestris L.) when seeking flowers in a visually complex background. To explore this issue, we first evaluated the effect of f...
متن کاملDivergent Rules for Pollen and Nectar Foraging Bumblebees – A Laboratory Study with Artificial Flowers Offering Diluted Nectar Substitute and Pollen Surrogate
Almost all bees collect nectar and pollen from flowers. Female bees collect pollen to provision their nest cells, whereas they use nectar for individual energy supply and nest cell provisioning. Bees fine-tune nectar foraging to the amount and to the concentration of nectar, but the individual bees' response to variability of amount and concentration of pollen reward has not yet been studied th...
متن کامل