Mechanisms of electroreception in Bumblebees and Honeybees

蜜蜂和花卉在授粉过程中有着悠久的共同进化历史。授粉对植物和昆虫都有好处，授粉是相互适应的一个主要例子，涉及在正确的地点和正确的时间发生复杂的相互作用。花产生花蜜和花粉来邀请传粉者访问，而蜜蜂将利用多种感觉和沟通机制来协调它们的努力，提高它们的觅食效率。我们的研究证实，除了视觉、嗅觉、温度和结构线索外，大黄蜂还能够探测到它们接近花朵时产生的微弱静电场。蜜蜂也能够了解这些电场的存在、变化和结构，表明它们能够决定在哪里只使用电场就能找到花蜜资源(Clarke等人。科学)。目前的证据表明，机械感觉毛发对电场高度敏感，就像那些来自花的电场一样(Sutton等人，PNAS；Clarke等人。J Comp Physiol；Morley&Robert Current Biology；Koh&Robert Interface)，强调了更好地理解电子信息蜜蜂从其信息中实际感觉到什么的重要性。借鉴感觉生态学和神经行为学，这一博士学位将被整合到我们目前的研究中，调查大黄蜂和蜜蜂是如何检测电场的，以及它们如何结合视觉信息来做到这一点。与嗅觉和视觉不同，电接收的许多感觉仍然有待探索，留下了悬而未决的问题，比如蜜蜂能探测到多远的电场？什么是检测的行为阈值？它们是几种类型的电毛感受器吗？蜜蜂实际上探测到的静电信息是什么，它是如何使用这些信息来做出行为决定的？这是该项目将使用行为学和神经生物学方法探索的问题类型。研究将在实验室和实地进行，由D.Robert教授监督，布里斯托尔大学生物科学学院的感觉生态学、听觉和电接收、感觉生物物理学和埃克塞特大学心理学院的N·亨佩尔·德·伊巴拉教授，动物视觉、学习和记忆、神经行为学。

Bees and flowers share a long co-evolutionary history through the process of pollination. Benefitting both plant and insect, pollination is a prime example of reciprocal adaptation involving complex interactions taking place at the right place and at the right time. Flowers produce nectar and pollen to invite pollinator visit, whilst bees will deploy multiple senses and mechanisms of communication to coordinate their efforts and enhance their foraging efficiency. Our research established that, in addition to visual, olfactory, thermal and structural cues, bumblebees have the capacity to detect the weak electrostatic field that arises when they approach a flower. Also capable of learning the presence, variation and structure of these electric fields, bees were shown to be able to take decision as to where to find nectar resources using electric fields only (Clarke et al. Science). Current evidence shows that mechanosensory hairs are highly sensitive to electric fields like those arising from flowers (Sutton et al, PNAS; Clarke et al. J Comp Physiol; Morley & Robert Current Biology; Koh & Robert Interface), highlighting the importance of a better understanding of what electric information bees actually senses from their information. Drawing from sensory ecology and neuroethology, this PhD studentship will be integrated in our current research investigating how bumblebees and honeybees detect electric fields and how they do so with in conjunction with visual information. Unlike for olfactory and visual senses, much of sense of electroreception remains to be explored, leaving outstanding questions open such as how far can a bee detect an electric field? What is the behavioural threshold of detection? Are they several types of electric hair receptors? What is the electrostatic information in effect detected by the bee and how does it use it to take behavioural decisions? These are the type of questions that this project will explore, using behavioural and neurobiological methods. Research will be supported and conducted in the lab and in the field, supervised by Prof D. Robert, sensory ecology, hearing and electroreception, sensory biophysics, School of Biological Sciences at the University of Bristol and Prof N. Hempel de Ibarra, animal vision, learning and memory, neuroethology, School of Psychology at the University of Exeter.