Investigating the effects of amino acids/sugars/bitter toxicants on bumblebee foraging preferences and behaviour

大黄蜂是一种重要的昆虫群体，它们觅食花蜜和花粉，为植物授粉，有助于植物的繁殖成功。在觅食过程中，蜜蜂学会将特定的花卉线索与植物提供的可觅食奖励联系起来，这有助于它们在最有回报的植物上有效地觅食，同时忽略那些回报较低的植物。这需要对学习和记忆进行大量的认知投资；然而，我们对花蜜奖励的组成如何相互作用来驱动这些认知过程知之甚少。该项目旨在调查花蜜糖成分对大黄蜂学习和记忆花卉线索的能力的影响，以及研究引起摄取后效应的花蜜添加剂对大黄蜂学习的影响（摄取后：蜜蜂不能通过味觉检测到的化合物，只有在食用后，但被认为会影响行为）。它还将现有的方法扩展到野生大黄蜂（Bombus sp.）的物种中，这是一个研究不足的领域，可能会对这个重要属的学习如何发生产生富有成效的见解。BBSRC优先领域：本文件中概述的项目符合BBSRC的以下优先领域：动物健康/可持续地提高农业生产/受管理动物的福利/与环境变化共存

Bumblebees are an important group of insects and pollinate plants as they forage for nectar and pollen, contributing to the reproductive success of plants. Whilst foraging, bees learn to associate specific floral cues with the foragable rewards offered by the plant which helps them forage efficiently on the most rewarding plants, whilst disregarding those which are less rewarding. This requires significant cognitive investment into learning and memory; however, we know relatively little about the ways in which the composition of nectar rewards interact to drive these cognitive processes. This project aims to investigate the influence that nectar sugar composition has on the ability of bumblebees to learn and remember floral cues, as well as looking into the impacts that nectar additives which elicit post-ingestive effects have on bumblebee learning (post-ingestive: compounds which the bees cannot detect by taste, only after consumption, but which are thought to influence behaviour). It will also expand existing methodologies into species of wild bumblebee (Bombus sp.), which is an under-researched area and could yield fruitful insights into how learning occurs across this important genus.BBSRC Priority Areas:The project outlined within this document fits into the following BBSRC priority areas: Animal health / Sustainably enhancing agricultural production / Welfare of managed animals / Living with environmental change