Bumblebees: their foraging behaviour and cognition

我的研究是关于大黄蜂的学习、认知和行为。 这种方法是生态学的，因为它研究了寻找和开发食物来源的机制。 拟议研究的主要长期目标是（1）使用我们实验室开发的方法，追踪从工蜂第一次离开殖民地寻找食物到发现花蜜或花粉的行为轨迹：（a）在吸引熊蜂到潜在食物来源方面，什么样的花特征最重要？例如，另一只蜜蜂的存在是否具有任何信号值？和（B）蜜蜂从失败的寻找食物的尝试中学到了什么？ 这项工作是新的，强调非奖励在塑造蜜蜂行为的作用。(2)解决基本但未经检验的假设，即蜜蜂接近的视觉图案（例如，图画、照片）被认为是花的表示，如果不是实际的花的话。 蜜蜂将接受图片-物体对应性测试：在对照片进行辨别训练后，它们将接受图片-物体转移测试，反之亦然。 这是大黄蜂认知的一个新领域，也是其他动物认知研究的一个丰富领域，物种比较才刚刚开始。(3)开展物种分布和田间授粉的应用研究。 在过去的10年里，大黄蜂的行为已经成为密集调查的对象，部分原因是它们作为传粉者的经济和社会价值以及对全球范围内下降的担忧。 我们已经记录了英国北方两个物种分布的转变：一个常见的物种似乎正在取代另一个。 我们将扩大我们的采样面积，并记录栖息地和饲料特性。 我们计划在格鲁吉亚湾的蓝莓作物的疑似授粉赤字的实地研究：我们将测量蓝莓生产和蜜蜂的行为响应实验操作的蜜蜂密度。 这项工作直接关系到人类对粮食安全和物种保护的关切。 这项研究与本科生和研究生的培养密不可分。

My research is on learning, cognition and behaviour in bumblebees. The approach is ecological in that the mechanisms of finding and exploiting food sources are investigated. The main long-term objectives of the proposed research are (1) to trace, using methods developed in our lab, the behavioural trajectory from the time that a worker first leaves the colony in search of food through to when she discovers nectar or pollen: (a) what floral characteristics are most important in attracting bumblebees to potential food sources? e.g. does the presence of another bee have any signal value? and (b) what do bees learn from failed attempts to locate food? This work is new in emphasizing the role of non-reward in shaping bee behaviour. (2) to address the fundamental but untested assumption that visual patterns (e.g. drawings, photos) approached by bees are perceived as representations of flowers if not actual flowers. Bees will be tested for picture-object correspondence: following discrimination training on photos, they will be tested for picture-to-object transfer and vice-versa. This is a new area in bumblebee cognition as well as a fertile area of investigation in other-animal cognition where species comparisons have barely begun. (3) to undertake applied research on species distributions and field pollination. Bumblebee behaviour has over the last 10 years become the object of intense investigation in part because of their economic and social value as pollinators and concerns over worldwide declines. We have documented a shift in the distribution of two species in Northern Britain: one common species seems to be replacing the other. We will expand our sampling area and record habitat and forage characteristics. We plan a field study on a suspected pollination deficit for blueberry crops in Georgian Bay: we will measure blueberry production and bee behaviour in response to experimental manipulations of bee densities. This work is directly tied to human concerns over food security and species conservation. This research is inextricably linked to the training of Undergraduate and Graduate students.