College of Arts & Sciences

Serena Joury

College of Arts & Sciences

Environmental Science

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Dane Ward Biodiversity, Earth & Environmental Science

Meghan Barrett

Co-Mentor

Conditioning Bees in Cuba: assessing the cognitive behavior and color preferences of Melipona beecheii through visual associative learning assays

The ability to learn information is critical for bees interacting with complex environments. Innate color preferences, as well as the ability to learn visual cues, have already been shown in honey and bumble bees. However, bees that evolved in more consistent tropical environments, such as the stingless bee species Melipona beecheii, may have different innate preferences and learning abilities that explain influential ecological and evolutionary factors across tropical and temperate environments. Using the Free Moving Proboscis Extension Response (FMPER) protocol, M. beecheii bees were tested for individual color preference and the ability to learn an association between color and a sucrose reward. The color preference test suggested a bias for yellow over blue, and no preference between blue and orange. Associative learning assays showed that M. beecheii bees are not highly motivated to learn (34%, n=117) but those that are motivated are highly successful (75% passed the associative learning test after five conditioning trials). These investigations reveal that learning visual cues is important for foraging social bees in tropical environments.