Visuo-motor biases in buff-tailed bumblebees (Bombus terrestris)

ABSTRACT

Bees provide a good model to investigate the evolution of lateralization. So far, most studies focused on olfactory learning and memories in tethered bees. This study investigated possible behavioural biases in free-flying buff-tailed bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) by analysing their turning decisions in a T-maze. Bees of various size were trained to associate a syrup reward with a blue target placed at the centre of the T-maze. The bees were then tested over 16 trials by presenting them with blue targets at the end of the maze’s arms. The maze was rotated 180° after the first 8 trials to control for environmental factors. The number of turnings to the left and right arms were analysed. The bees sampled exhibited a population-level rightward turning bias. As bumblebees vary significantly in size with large bees being better learners than smaller ones, we measured the thorax width to identify a possible relationship between size and bias. No significant correlation was identified. This study shows that bees present lateralization in a visuo-motor task that mimics their foraging behaviour, indicating a possible specialization of the right side of the nervous system in routine tasks.

KEYWORDS:

• Behavioural bias
• side-turning
• T-maze
• bee
• lateralization

Acknowledgements

This study has been supported by the School of Life Sciences at the University of Lincoln (UK) through a start-up fund to EF. We thank Paul Sheridan for his technical help in the laboratory.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This study has been supported by the School of Life Sciences at the University of Lincoln (UK) through a start-up fund to EF.