School of Life Sciences, University of Lincoln, Lincoln, UK.
Laterality. 2021 Jan-Mar;26(1-2):55-70. doi: 10.1080/1357650X.2020.1826503. Epub 2020 Oct 2.
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 () 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.
蜜蜂为研究偏侧性的进化提供了一个很好的模型。到目前为止，大多数研究都集中在拴系蜜蜂的嗅觉学习和记忆上。本研究通过分析它们在 T 迷宫中的转弯决策，研究了自由飞行的熊蜂（）中可能存在的行为偏差。不同大小的蜜蜂被训练将糖浆奖励与放置在 T 迷宫中心的蓝色目标联系起来。然后，在 16 次试验中通过在迷宫臂的末端呈现蓝色目标来测试蜜蜂。在前 8 次试验后，将迷宫旋转 180°以控制环境因素。分析了向左和向右转弯的次数。抽样的蜜蜂表现出群体水平的向右转弯偏向。由于熊蜂的大小差异很大，大蜜蜂比小蜜蜂学习能力更强，因此我们测量了胸宽以确定大小和偏差之间可能存在的关系。未发现显著相关性。本研究表明，蜜蜂在模仿其觅食行为的视觉运动任务中表现出偏侧性，这表明神经系统右侧在常规任务中可能存在专业化。
