One of the best examples of a natural behavioral syndrome is the pollen-hoarding syndrome in honeybees that ties together multiple behavioral phenotypes, ranging from foraging behavior to behavioral ontogeny and learning performance. A central behavioral factor is the bees' responsiveness to sucrose, measured as their proboscis extension reflex. This study examines the genetics of this trait in...

Visual performances of honeybees have been extensively studied using free-flying individuals trained to choose visual stimuli paired with sucrose reward. By contrast, harnessed bees in the laboratory were not thought to be capable of learning a Pavlovian association between a visual stimulus (CS) and sucrose reward (US). For reasons as yet unknown, harnessed bees only learn visual cues in assoc...

To date five different theories compete in explaining the biological mechanisms of senescence or ageing in invertebrates. Physiological, genetical, and environmental mechanisms form the image of ageing in individuals and groups. Social insects, especially the honeybee Apis mellifera, present exceptional model systems to study developmentally related ageing. The extremely high phenotypic plastic...

Pollinator services and the development of beekeeping as a poverty alleviating tool have gained considerable focus in recent years in sub-Saharan Africa. An improved understanding of the pervasive environmental extent of agro-chemical contaminants is critical to the success of beekeeping development and the production of clean hive products. This study developed and validated a multi-residue me...

The honeybee is one of several insect model systems for the study of olfaction, yet our knowledge regarding the spectrum of odorants detectable by Apis mellifera is limited. One class of odorants that has never been tested so far are the amino acids, which are important constituents of floral nectar. Using the proboscis extension response paradigm, we assessed whether the odor of amino acids is...

Evidence is accumulating that commonly used pesticides are linked to decline of pollinator populations; adverse effects of three neonicotinoids on bees have led to bans on their use across the European Union. Developing insecticides that pose negligible risks to beneficial organisms such as honeybees is desirable and timely. One strategy is to use recombinant fusion proteins containing neuroact...

Epigenetic modifications to DNA, such as DNA methylation, can expand a genome's regulatory flexibility, and thus may contribute to the evolution of phenotypic plasticity. Recent work has demonstrated the importance of DNA methylation in alternative queen and worker "castes" in social insects, particularly honeybees. Social insects are an excellent system for addressing questions about epigeneti...

Honeybees (Apis mellifera) curl their abdomens for daily rhythmic activities. Prior to determining this fact, people have concluded that honeybees could curl their abdomen casually. However, an intriguing but less studied feature is the possible unidirectional abdominal deformation in free-flying honeybees. A high-speed video camera was used to capture the curling and to analyze the changes in ...

Honeybees visually pinpoint the location of a food source using landmarks. Studies on the role of visual memories have suggested that bees approach the goal by finding a close match between their current view and a memorized view of the goal location. The most relevant landmark features for this matching process seem to be their retinal positions, the size as defined by their edges, and their c...