Use of Flower Color-Cue Memory by Honey Bee Foragers Continues when Rewards No Longer Differ between Flower Colors

摘要

Honey bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae) were used as a model insect system to explore forager use of a learned color-cue memory over several subsequent days. Experiments used artificial flower patches of blue and white flowers. Two experiments were performed, each beginning with a learning experience where 2 M sucrose was present in one flower color and 1 M sucrose in the alternative flower color. The first experiment followed flower color fidelity over a series of sequential days when rewards no longer differed between flowers of different color. The second examined the effect of intervening days without the forager visiting the flower patch. Results showed that color-cue memory decline was not a passive time-decay process and that information update in honey bees does not occur readily without new experiences of difference in rewarding flowers. Further, although the color cue learned was associated with nectar reward in long term memory, it did not seem to be specifically associated with the 2 M sucrose nectar reward when intervening nights occurred between learning and revisiting the flower patch.