Effects of practice on the recall of flower handling skills and foraging behaviour in bumble bees (Bombus impatiens).

摘要

Pollinating insects often make sequential visits to flowers of one species even though other potentially rewarding species are available. This behaviour, known as flower constancy, is most often attributed to limitations of learning and memory. Individuals that switch between flower types experience a difficulty in the recall of previously learned flower handling skills known as interference and therefore, to avoid these costs, exhibit constancy. However, constancy may not be the result of interference if pollinators can learn with practice to switch among different flower handling skills. In the first set of experiments it was investigated if bumbles bees (Bombus impatiens) could learn to switch among different handling skills of artificial flower types without having to relearn them.; In a subsequent experiment results were generally consistent with flower choice patterns of bees on a mixed array of four flower types with different handling skills where persistent interference costs were found in the first set of experiments.; In a final experiment, flower choice patterns on a mixed array of four flower types that were more similar in handling skill compared to those in the first set of experiments was also investigated. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)