These tools will no longer be maintained as of December 31, 2024. Archived website can be found here. PubMed4Hh GitHub repository can be found here. Contact NLM Customer Service if you have questions.


Pubmed for Handhelds

PUBMED FOR HANDHELDS

Search MEDLINE/PubMed

  • Title: Perception of floral volatiles involved in host-plant finding behaviour: comparison of a bee specialist and generalist.
    Author: Burger H, Ayasse M, Dötterl S, Kreissl S, Galizia CG.
    Journal: J Comp Physiol A Neuroethol Sens Neural Behav Physiol; 2013 Sep; 199(9):751-61. PubMed ID: 23793798.
    Abstract:
    Specialist and generalist bees use olfactory and visual cues to find and recognise flowering plants. Specialised (oligolectic) bees rely on few host plants for pollen collection. These bee species are suggested to use specific volatiles, but it is unknown whether they have dedicated adaptations for these particular compounds compared to bees not specialised on the same plants. In the present study, we investigated the perception of host odorants and its neuronal substrate with regard to host-plant finding behaviour in oligolectic bees. We reconstructed the antennal lobes (AL) in the Salix specialist, Andrena vaga, and counted about 135 glomeruli and thereby less than the approximately 160 in honeybees. Using calcium imaging experiments to measure neural activity in the bee brain, we recorded odorant-evoked activity patterns in the AL of A. vaga and, for comparison, in the generalist honeybee, Apis mellifera. Our physiological experiments demonstrated that A. vaga bees were particularly sensitive to 1,4-dimethoxybenzene, a behaviour-mediating odorant of Salix host flowers. We found more sensitive glomeruli in the specialised bees as compared to generalist honeybees. This neural adaptation might allow oligolectic A. vaga bees to effectively locate host plants from distances.
    [Abstract] [Full Text] [Related] [New Search]