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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Imidacloprid Impairs Performance On A Model Flower Handling Task In Bumblebees (Bombus Impatiens), Jordan D. Phelps
Imidacloprid Impairs Performance On A Model Flower Handling Task In Bumblebees (Bombus Impatiens), Jordan D. Phelps
Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository
Bumblebees exposed to neonicotinoid pesticides collect less pollen on foraging trips. Exposed bumblebees are also slower to learn to handle flowers, which may account for reduced pollen collection. It is unclear, however, why neonicotinoid exposure slows learning to handle flowers. I investigated the effect of imidacloprid, a neonicotinoid pesticide, on bumblebee motor learning using a lab model of flower handling. Bumblebees learned to invert inside a narrow tube and lift a petal-shaped barrier to reach a reward chamber. Imidacloprid-exposed bumblebees showed a dose-dependent delay to solve the task, which resulted from reduced switching between behavioural strategies and a subsequent delay …
Behavioural Flexibility In Bumblebees (Bombus Impatiens), Caroline Strang
Behavioural Flexibility In Bumblebees (Bombus Impatiens), Caroline Strang
Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository
Foraging bumblebees (Bombus impatiens) extract nectar and pollen from a wide variety of morphologically distinct flower species, referred to as flower handling. Bumblebees learn this behaviour and acquisition of multiple flower handling techniques is a demonstration of behavioural flexibility. The purpose of this thesis is to understand how bumblebees are able to forage flexibly. This research has three specific goals: (1) to identify the cognitive mechanisms that support flower handling learning, (2) to understand how bumblebees avoid interference costs between multiple handling techniques, and (3) to explore the relation between behavioural flexibility and the mushroom bodies of the …