Scheiner Ricarda, Lim Kayun, Meixner Marina D, Gabel Martin S
Behavioral Physiology & Sociobiology, Biocenter, University of Würzburg, Am Hubland, 97074 Würzburg, Germany.
Laboratory of Insect Biosystematics, Department of Agricultural Biotechnology, Seoul National University, Seoul 08826, Korea.
Insects. 2021 Aug 27;12(9):768. doi: 10.3390/insects12090768.
The Western honeybee ( L.) is one of the most widespread insects with numerous subspecies in its native range. How far adaptation to local habitats has affected the cognitive skills of the different subspecies is an intriguing question that we investigate in this study. Naturally mated queens of the following five subspecies from different parts of Europe were transferred to Southern Germany: from Portugal, from Belgium, from Greece, from Italy, and from Malta. We also included the local subspecies in our study. New colonies were built up in a common apiary where the respective queens were introduced. Worker offspring from the different subspecies were compared in classical olfactory learning performance using the proboscis extension response. Prior to conditioning, we measured individual sucrose responsiveness to investigate whether possible differences in learning performances were due to differential responsiveness to the sugar water reward. Most subspecies did not differ in their appetitive learning performance. However, foragers of the Iberian honeybee, , performed significantly more poorly, despite having a similar sucrose responsiveness. We discuss possible causes for the poor performance of the Iberian honeybees, which may have been shaped by adaptation to the local habitat.
西方蜜蜂（Apis mellifera L.）是分布最广的昆虫之一，在其原生范围内有众多亚种。对当地栖息地的适应在多大程度上影响了不同亚种的认知能力，这是一个有趣的问题，我们在本研究中对此进行了探究。来自欧洲不同地区的以下五个亚种的自然交配蜂王被转移到德国南部：葡萄牙亚种（Apis mellifera iberiensis）、比利时亚种（Apis mellifera mellifera）、希腊亚种（Apis mellifera cecropia）、意大利亚种（Apis mellifera ligustica）和马耳他亚种（Apis mellifera carnica）。我们的研究中还纳入了当地亚种（Apis mellifera mellifera）。在一个共同的养蜂场中建立新蜂群，并引入相应的蜂王。使用喙伸反应，比较了不同亚种工蜂后代在经典嗅觉学习表现上的差异。在条件训练之前，我们测量了个体对蔗糖的反应性，以研究学习表现上可能存在的差异是否是由于对糖水奖励的反应性不同所致。大多数亚种在食欲性学习表现上没有差异。然而，伊比利亚蜜蜂（Apis mellifera iberiensis）的觅食者表现明显较差，尽管它们对蔗糖的反应性相似。我们讨论了伊比利亚蜜蜂表现不佳的可能原因，这可能是由对当地栖息地的适应所塑造的。
