Visual associative learning and olfactory preferences of the greater banded hornet, Vespa tropica
Visual associative learning and olfactory preferences of the greater banded hornet, Vespa tropica
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DOI：
10.1007/s00040-021-00820-w
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发表时间：
2021-06-24
期刊：
影响因子：
1.3
通讯作者：
Somanathan, H.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Balamurali, G. S.;Reshnuraj, R. S.;Somanathan, H.
掠食性群居黄蜂是一种机会性、侵入性和多面手的觅食蜂，它们采用不同的觅食策略来满足成虫和幼虫的营养需求。它们是敏捷的视觉捕食者，可以在飞行中捕食，以尸体为食，从腐烂的水果中收集树液、蜜露、花蜜和糖。它们多样化的觅食策略使它们成为研究认知和特定情境下感官信息使用的优秀模型系统。尽管花蜜是寄生蜂的主要碳水化合物来源之一，但很少有研究关注寄生蜂在取花过程中的视觉联想学习和嗅觉偏好。更深入地了解它们在花觅食环境中的感觉生态和学习能力是很重要的，因为它们是世界上许多地方蜜蜂群落的入侵和主要捕食者。研究了热带大黄蜂的视觉联想学习和嗅觉偏好。我们发现，热带紫斑蝽觅食者很容易将颜色与糖奖励联系起来，并表现出颜色泛化。他们还学会将形状与糖奖励联系起来。我们的研究结果表明，颜色学习和形状识别可能在热带花的寻花过程中起作用。最后，我们表明，热带V.偏爱与蜜蜂蜂巢相关的气味，而不是一般的花香，这表明对蜂巢气味的偏好可能有助于大黄蜂在蜂群中定居。
Predatory social wasps (Vespidae) are opportunistic, invasive and generalist foragers which employ distinct foraging strategies to meet the nutritional needs of adults and larvae. They are agile, visual predators that can hunt on the fly, scavenge on carcasses and collect tree sap, honeydew, nectar and sugars from rotting fruits. Their diverse foraging strategies make them an excellent model system to study cognition and context specific use of sensory information. Few studies have addressed visual associative learning and olfactory preferences of predatory social wasps in the context of flower-feeding, although nectar is one of their main carbohydrate sources. A deeper understanding of their sensory ecology and learning abilities in the flower foraging context is important, as they are invasive and major predators of honeybee colonies in many parts of the world. We investigated visual associative learning and olfactory preference in the Greater banded hornet Vespa tropica. We found that V. tropica foragers readily associate colour with sugar reward and exhibit colour generalisation. They also learn to associate shapes with sugar rewards. Our results suggest that colour learning and shape discrimination might play a role in the context of flower search in V. tropica. Finally, we show that V. tropica preferred honeybee hive-related odours over a generic floral odour, indicating that the preference for hive odours could potentially help hornets home in on bee colonies.