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Guiraud M, Hotier L, Giurfa M, de Brito Sanchez MG. Aversive gustatory learning and perception in honey bees. Sci Rep 2018; 8:1343. [PMID: 29358592 PMCID: PMC5778057 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-19715-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/24/2017] [Accepted: 01/08/2018] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Taste perception allows discriminating edible from non-edible items and is crucial for survival. In the honey bee, the gustatory sense has remained largely unexplored, as tastants have been traditionally used as reinforcements rather than as stimuli to be learned and discriminated. Here we provide the first characterization of antennal gustatory perception in this insect using a novel conditioning protocol in which tastants are dissociated from their traditional food-reinforcement role to be learned as predictors of punishment. We found that bees have a limited gustatory repertoire via their antennae: they discriminate between broad gustatory modalities but not within modalities, and are unable to differentiate bitter substances from water. Coupling gustatory conditioning with blockade of aminergic pathways in the bee brain revealed that these pathways are not restricted to encode reinforcements but may also encode conditioned stimuli. Our results reveal unknown aspects of honey bee gustation, and bring new elements for comparative analyses of gustatory perception in animals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marie Guiraud
- Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition Animale (CRCA), Centre de Biologie Intégrative (CBI), Université de Toulouse; CNRS, UPS, 31062, Toulouse cedex 9, France.,Queen Mary University of London, School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Biological and Experimental Psychology, Mile End Road, London, E1 4NS, United Kingdom
| | - Lucie Hotier
- Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition Animale (CRCA), Centre de Biologie Intégrative (CBI), Université de Toulouse; CNRS, UPS, 31062, Toulouse cedex 9, France
| | - Martin Giurfa
- Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition Animale (CRCA), Centre de Biologie Intégrative (CBI), Université de Toulouse; CNRS, UPS, 31062, Toulouse cedex 9, France.
| | - María Gabriela de Brito Sanchez
- Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition Animale (CRCA), Centre de Biologie Intégrative (CBI), Université de Toulouse; CNRS, UPS, 31062, Toulouse cedex 9, France.
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2
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Liao LH, Wu WY, Berenbaum MR. Behavioral responses of honey bees (Apis mellifera) to natural and synthetic xenobiotics in food. Sci Rep 2017; 7:15924. [PMID: 29162843 PMCID: PMC5698444 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-15066-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 50] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/07/2017] [Accepted: 10/16/2017] [Indexed: 01/01/2023] Open
Abstract
While the natural foods of the western honey bee (Apis mellifera) contain diverse phytochemicals, in contemporary agroecosystems honey bees also encounter pesticides as floral tissue contaminants. Whereas some ubiquitous phytochemicals in bee foods up-regulate detoxification and immunity genes, thereby benefiting nestmates, many agrochemical pesticides adversely affect bee health even at sublethal levels. How honey bees assess xenobiotic risk to nestmates as they forage is poorly understood. Accordingly, we tested nine phytochemicals ubiquitous in nectar, pollen, or propolis, as well as five synthetic xenobiotics that frequently contaminate hives—two herbicides (atrazine and glyphosate) and three fungicides (boscalid, chlorothalonil, and prochloraz). In semi-field free-flight experiments, bees were offered a choice between paired sugar water feeders amended with either a xenobiotic or solvent only (control). Among the phytochemicals, foragers consistently preferred quercetin at all five concentrations tested, as evidenced by both visitation frequency and consumption rates. This preference may reflect the long evolutionary association between honey bees and floral tissues. Of pesticides eliciting a response, bees displayed a preference at specific concentrations for glyphosate and chlorothalonil. This paradoxical preference may account for the frequency with which these pesticides occur as hive contaminants and suggests that they present a greater risk factor for honey bee health than previously suspected.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ling-Hsiu Liao
- Department of Entomology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, 61801-3795, USA
| | - Wen-Yen Wu
- Department of Entomology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, 61801-3795, USA
| | - May R Berenbaum
- Department of Entomology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, 61801-3795, USA.
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Telles FJ, Corcobado G, Trillo A, Rodríguez-Gironés MA. Multimodal cues provide redundant information for bumblebees when the stimulus is visually salient, but facilitate red target detection in a naturalistic background. PLoS One 2017; 12:e0184760. [PMID: 28898287 PMCID: PMC5595325 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0184760] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/09/2016] [Accepted: 08/30/2017] [Indexed: 12/22/2022] Open
Abstract
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 flower colour (red and blue), size (8, 16 and 32 mm), scent (presence or absence) and the amount of training on the foraging strategy of bumblebees (accuracy, search time and flight behaviour), considering the visual complexity of our background, to later explore whether experienced bumblebees, previously trained in the presence of scent, can recall and make use of odour information when foraging in the presence of novel visual stimuli carrying a familiar scent. Of all the variables analysed, flower colour had the strongest effect on the foraging strategy. Bumblebees searching for blue flowers were more accurate, flew faster, followed more direct paths between flowers and needed less time to find them, than bumblebees searching for red flowers. In turn, training and the presence of odour helped bees to find inconspicuous (red) flowers. When bees foraged on red flowers, search time increased with flower size; but search time was independent of flower size when bees foraged on blue flowers. Previous experience with floral scent enhances the capacity of detection of a novel colour carrying a familiar scent, probably by elemental association influencing attention.
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Affiliation(s)
- Francismeire Jane Telles
- Department of Functional and Evolutionary Ecology, Estación Experimental de Zonas Áridas (EEZA-CSIC), Almería, Spain
- * E-mail:
| | | | - Alejandro Trillo
- Department of Integrative Ecology, Doñana Biological Station, Sevilla, Spain
| | - Miguel A. Rodríguez-Gironés
- Department of Functional and Evolutionary Ecology, Estación Experimental de Zonas Áridas (EEZA-CSIC), Almería, Spain
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Desmedt L, Hotier L, Giurfa M, Velarde R, de Brito Sanchez MG. Absence of food alternatives promotes risk-prone feeding of unpalatable substances in honey bees. Sci Rep 2016; 6:31809. [PMID: 27534586 PMCID: PMC4989156 DOI: 10.1038/srep31809] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/17/2016] [Accepted: 07/26/2016] [Indexed: 11/28/2022] Open
Abstract
The question of why animals sometimes ingest noxious substances is crucial to understand unknown determinants of feeding behaviour. Research on risk-prone feeding behaviour has largely focused on energy budgets as animals with low energy budgets tend to ingest more aversive substances. A less explored possibility is that risk-prone feeding arises from the absence of alternative feeding options, irrespectively of energy budgets. Here we contrasted these two hypotheses in late-fall and winter honey bees. We determined the toxicity of various feeding treatments and showed that when bees can choose between sucrose solution and a mixture of this sucrose solution and a noxious/unpalatable substance, they prefer the pure sucrose solution and reject the mixtures, irrespective of their energy budget. Yet, when bees were presented with a single feeding option and their escape possibilities were reduced, they consumed unexpectedly some of the previously rejected mixtures, independently of their energy budget. These findings are interpreted as a case of feeding helplessness, in which bees behave as if it were utterly helpless to avoid the potentially noxious food and consume it. They suggest that depriving bees of variable natural food sources may have the undesired consequence of increasing their acceptance of food that would be otherwise rejected.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lucie Desmedt
- Research Centre on Animal Cognition, Center for Integrative Biology, University of Toulouse; CNRS, UPS, 118 route de Narbonne, 31062 Toulouse cedex 09, France
| | - Lucie Hotier
- Research Centre on Animal Cognition, Center for Integrative Biology, University of Toulouse; CNRS, UPS, 118 route de Narbonne, 31062 Toulouse cedex 09, France
| | - Martin Giurfa
- Research Centre on Animal Cognition, Center for Integrative Biology, University of Toulouse; CNRS, UPS, 118 route de Narbonne, 31062 Toulouse cedex 09, France
| | - Rodrigo Velarde
- Departamento de Biodiversidad y Biología Experimental, Grupo de Estudio de Insectos Sociales, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Pabellón II, Ciudad Universitaria (C1428EHA), Buenos Aires, Argentina
| | - Maria Gabriela de Brito Sanchez
- Research Centre on Animal Cognition, Center for Integrative Biology, University of Toulouse; CNRS, UPS, 118 route de Narbonne, 31062 Toulouse cedex 09, France
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Stejskal K, Streinzer M, Dyer A, Paulus HF, Spaethe J. Functional Significance of Labellum Pattern Variation in a Sexually Deceptive Orchid (Ophrys heldreichii): Evidence of Individual Signature Learning Effects. PLoS One 2015; 10:e0142971. [PMID: 26571020 PMCID: PMC4646623 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0142971] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/23/2015] [Accepted: 10/29/2015] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Mimicking female insects to attract male pollinators is an important strategy in sexually deceptive orchids of the genus Ophrys, and some species possess flowers with conspicuous labellum patterns. The function of the variation of the patterns remains unresolved, with suggestions that these enhance pollinator communication. We investigated the possible function of the labellum pattern in Ophrys heldreichii, an orchid species in which the conspicuous and complex labellum pattern contrasts with a dark background. The orchid is pollinated exclusively by males of the solitary bee, Eucera berlandi. Comparisons of labellum patterns revealed that patterns within inflorescences are more similar than those of other conspecific plants. Field observations showed that the males approach at a great speed and directly land on flowers, but after an unsuccessful copulation attempt, bees hover close and visually scan the labellum pattern for up to a minute. Learning experiments conducted with honeybees as an accessible model of bee vision demonstrated that labellum patterns of different plants can be reliably learnt; in contrast, patterns of flowers from the same inflorescence could not be discriminated. These results support the hypothesis that variable labellum patterns in O. heldreichii are involved in flower-pollinator communication which would likely help these plants to avoid geitonogamy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kerstin Stejskal
- Department of Integrative Zoology, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
- * E-mail:
| | - Martin Streinzer
- Department of Behavioral Physiology and Sociobiology, Biozentrum, University of Wuerzburg, Würzburg, Germany
- current address: Department of Neurobiology, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Adrian Dyer
- Department of Physiology, Monash University, Clayton, Australia
- School of Media and Communication, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia
| | - Hannes F. Paulus
- Department of Integrative Zoology, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Johannes Spaethe
- Department of Behavioral Physiology and Sociobiology, Biozentrum, University of Wuerzburg, Würzburg, Germany
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de Brito Sanchez MG, Serre M, Avarguès-Weber A, Dyer AG, Giurfa M. Learning context modulates aversive taste strength in honey bees. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2015; 218:949-59. [PMID: 25788729 DOI: 10.1242/jeb.117333] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/28/2022]
Abstract
The capacity of honey bees (Apis mellifera) to detect bitter substances is controversial because they ingest without reluctance different kinds of bitter solutions in the laboratory, whereas free-flying bees avoid them in visual discrimination tasks. Here, we asked whether the gustatory perception of bees changes with the behavioral context so that tastes that are less effective as negative reinforcements in a given context become more effective in a different context. We trained bees to discriminate an odorant paired with 1 mol l(-1) sucrose solution from another odorant paired with either distilled water, 3 mol l(-1) NaCl or 60 mmol l(-1) quinine. Training was either Pavlovian [olfactory conditioning of the proboscis extension reflex (PER) in harnessed bees], or mainly operant (olfactory conditioning of free-walking bees in a Y-maze). PER-trained and maze-trained bees were subsequently tested both in their original context and in the alternative context. Whereas PER-trained bees transferred their choice to the Y-maze situation, Y-maze-trained bees did not respond with a PER to odors when subsequently harnessed. In both conditioning protocols, NaCl and distilled water were the strongest and the weakest aversive reinforcement, respectively. A significant variation was found for quinine, which had an intermediate aversive effect in PER conditioning but a more powerful effect in the Y-maze, similar to that of NaCl. These results thus show that the aversive strength of quinine varies with the learning context, and reveal the plasticity of the bee's gustatory system. We discuss the experimental constraints of both learning contexts and focus on stress as a key modulator of taste in the honey bee. Further explorations of bee taste are proposed to understand the physiology of taste modulation in bees.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maria Gabriela de Brito Sanchez
- University of Toulouse, Research Center on Animal Cognition, Toulouse 31062, Cedex 9, France CNRS, Research Center on Animal Cognition, Toulouse 31062, Cedex 9, France
| | - Marion Serre
- University of Toulouse, Research Center on Animal Cognition, Toulouse 31062, Cedex 9, France CNRS, Research Center on Animal Cognition, Toulouse 31062, Cedex 9, France
| | - Aurore Avarguès-Weber
- University of Toulouse, Research Center on Animal Cognition, Toulouse 31062, Cedex 9, France CNRS, Research Center on Animal Cognition, Toulouse 31062, Cedex 9, France
| | - Adrian G Dyer
- School of Media and Communication, RMIT University, Melbourne, Victoria 3000, Australia
| | - Martin Giurfa
- University of Toulouse, Research Center on Animal Cognition, Toulouse 31062, Cedex 9, France CNRS, Research Center on Animal Cognition, Toulouse 31062, Cedex 9, France
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Telles FJ, Rodríguez-Gironés MA. Insect vision models under scrutiny: what bumblebees (Bombus terrestris terrestris L.) can still tell us. THE SCIENCE OF NATURE - NATURWISSENSCHAFTEN 2015. [PMID: 25613579 DOI: 10.1007/s00114-014-1256-1251] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/14/2023]
Abstract
Three contending models address the ability of bees to detect and discriminate colours: the colour opponent coding (COC) model, the colour hexagon (CH) model and the receptor noise-limited (RN) model, but few studies attempt to determine which model fits experimental data best. To assess whether the models provide an accurate description of bumblebee colour space, we trained bees to discriminate four colour pairs. The perceptual distance between the colours of each pair was similar according to the CH model but varied widely according to the COC and RN models. The time that bees required to select a flower and the proportion of correct choices differed between groups: decision times decreased as achromatic contrast increased, and the proportion of correct choices increased with achromatic contrast and perceptual distance, as predicted by the COC and RN models. These results suggest that both chromatic and achromatic contrasts affected the discriminability of colour pairs. Since flower colour affects the foraging choices of bees and foraging choices affect the reproductive success of plants, a better understanding of which model is more accurate under each circumstance is required to predict bee behaviour and the ecological implications of flower choice and colour.
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Affiliation(s)
- Francismeire Jane Telles
- Department of Functional and Evolutionary Ecology, Estación Experimental de Zonas Áridas (EEZA-CSIC), Carretera de Sacramento, s/n, La Cañada de San Urbano, 04120, Almería, Spain,
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8
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Telles FJ, Rodríguez-Gironés MA. Insect vision models under scrutiny: what bumblebees (Bombus terrestris terrestris L.) can still tell us. Naturwissenschaften 2015; 102:1256. [PMID: 25613579 DOI: 10.1007/s00114-014-1256-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/14/2014] [Revised: 12/09/2014] [Accepted: 12/15/2014] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
Abstract
Three contending models address the ability of bees to detect and discriminate colours: the colour opponent coding (COC) model, the colour hexagon (CH) model and the receptor noise-limited (RN) model, but few studies attempt to determine which model fits experimental data best. To assess whether the models provide an accurate description of bumblebee colour space, we trained bees to discriminate four colour pairs. The perceptual distance between the colours of each pair was similar according to the CH model but varied widely according to the COC and RN models. The time that bees required to select a flower and the proportion of correct choices differed between groups: decision times decreased as achromatic contrast increased, and the proportion of correct choices increased with achromatic contrast and perceptual distance, as predicted by the COC and RN models. These results suggest that both chromatic and achromatic contrasts affected the discriminability of colour pairs. Since flower colour affects the foraging choices of bees and foraging choices affect the reproductive success of plants, a better understanding of which model is more accurate under each circumstance is required to predict bee behaviour and the ecological implications of flower choice and colour.
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Affiliation(s)
- Francismeire Jane Telles
- Department of Functional and Evolutionary Ecology, Estación Experimental de Zonas Áridas (EEZA-CSIC), Carretera de Sacramento, s/n, La Cañada de San Urbano, 04120, Almería, Spain,
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Dyer AG, Garcia JE. Color Difference and Memory Recall in Free-Flying Honeybees: Forget the Hard Problem. INSECTS 2014; 5:629-38. [PMID: 26462830 PMCID: PMC4592575 DOI: 10.3390/insects5030629] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/13/2014] [Revised: 07/20/2014] [Accepted: 07/23/2014] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Free-flying honeybees acquire color information differently depending upon whether a target color is learnt in isolation (absolute conditioning), or in relation to a perceptually similar color (differential conditioning). Absolute conditioning allows for rapid learning, but color discrimination is coarse. Differential conditioning requires more learning trials, but enables fine discriminations. Currently it is unknown whether differential conditioning to similar colors in honeybees forms a long-term memory, and the stability of memory in a biologically relevant scenario considering similar or saliently different color stimuli. Individual free-flying honeybees (N = 6) were trained to similar color stimuli separated by 0.06 hexagon units for 60 trials and mean accuracy was 81.7% ± 12.2% s.d. Bees retested on subsequent days showed a reduction in the number of correct choices with increasing time from the initial training, and for four of the bees this reduction was significant from chance expectation considering binomially distributed logistic regression models. In contrast, an independent group of 6 bees trained to saliently different colors (>0.14 hexagon units) did not experience any decay in memory retention with increasing time. This suggests that whilst the bees’ visual system can permit fine discriminations, flowers producing saliently different colors are more easily remembered by foraging bees over several days.
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Affiliation(s)
- Adrian G Dyer
- Department of Physiology, Monash University, Clayton VIC 3800, Australia.
- School of Media and Communication, RMIT University, Melbourne VIC 3001, Australia.
| | - Jair E Garcia
- School of Media and Communication, RMIT University, Melbourne VIC 3001, Australia.
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Avarguès-Weber A, Giurfa M. Cognitive components of color vision in honey bees: how conditioning variables modulate color learning and discrimination. J Comp Physiol A Neuroethol Sens Neural Behav Physiol 2014; 200:449-61. [PMID: 24788332 DOI: 10.1007/s00359-014-0909-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 49] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/22/2014] [Revised: 03/30/2014] [Accepted: 04/07/2014] [Indexed: 10/25/2022]
Abstract
Since the demonstration of color vision in honey bees 100 years ago by Karl von Frisch, appetitive conditioning to color targets has been used as the principal way to access behavioral aspects of bee color vision. Yet, analyses on how conditioning parameters affect color perception remained scarce. Conclusions on bee color vision have often been made without referring them to the experimental context in which they were obtained, and thus presented as absolute facts instead of realizing that subtle variations in conditioning procedures might yield different results. Here, we review evidence showing that color learning and discrimination in bees are not governed by immutable properties of their visual system, but depend on how the insects are trained and thus learn a task. The use of absolute or differential conditioning protocols, the presence of aversive reinforcement in differential conditioning and the degrees of freedom of motor components determine dramatic variations in color discrimination. We, thus, suggest top-down attentional modulation of color vision to explain the changes in color learning and discrimination reviewed here. We discuss the possible neural mechanisms of this modulation and conclude that color vision experiments require a careful consideration of how training parameters shape behavioral responses.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aurore Avarguès-Weber
- Research Centre for Animal Cognition, UPS, Université de Toulouse, 118 route de Narbonne, 31062, Toulouse Cedex 9, France
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Bee reverse-learning behavior and intra-colony differences: Simulations based on behavioral experiments reveal benefits of diversity. Ecol Modell 2014. [DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2014.01.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
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