The effects of queenlessness on the maturation of the honey bee olfactory system.
During the first week of adult life the olfactory system of the honey bee undergoes a critical period of maturation [Masson and Arnold, Organisation and plasticity of the olfactory system of the honeybee, Apis mellifera, in: Menzel and Mercer (Eds.), Neurobiology and Behaviour of Honeybees. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 1987, pp. 280 295]. This is accompanied by dramatic increases in the volume of the antennal lobes [Winnington et al., Structural plasticity of identified glomeruli in the antennal lobes of the adult worker honey bee. J. Comp. Neurol., 365 (1996) 479-490], centres of the brain that receive direct input from primary olfactory receptor neurons housed in the antennae of the bee. Here, we show that during the first 4-6 days of adult life there is a significant increase in the percentage of bees that respond to a conditioned olfactory stimulus after a single conditioning trial and, furthermore, that the ontogeny of this olfactory learning behaviour is altered significantly if the queen is removed from the colony. The absence of a queen during early adult life also has site-specific effects on the maturation of the antennal lobes of the brain. These results show for the first time that the queen's presence in a colony has a significant impact not only on the behaviour of the adult worker honey bee, but also on the structure of the brain.
Morgan
S M
SM
Centre for Neuroscience and Department of Zoology, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.
Butz Huryn
V M
VM
Downes
S R
SR
Mercer
A R
AR
D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology; D000818:Animals; D001245:Association Learning / Q000502:physiology; D001516:Bees / Q000502:physiology*; D001921:Brain / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000502:physiology; D003216:Conditioning, Operant / Q000502:physiology; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology; D009833:Olfactory Pathways / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000254:growth & development / Q000502:physiology; D012018:Reflex / Q000502:physiology; D012679:Sense Organs / Q000254:growth & development / Q000502:physiology; D012903:Smell / Q000502:physiology*; D012919:Social Behavior