title: Classical conditioning of proboscis extension in harnessed Africanized honey bee queens (Apis mellifera L.).
abstract: Experiments are reported on learning in virgin Africanized honey bee queens (Apis mellifera L.). Queens restrained in a "Pavlovian harness" received a pairing of hexanal odor with a 1.8-M feeding of sucrose solution. Compared to explicitly unpaired controls, acquisition was rapid in reaching about 90%. Acquisition was also rapid in queens receiving an unconditioned stimulus of "bee candy" or an unconditioned stimulus administered by worker bees. During extinction the conditioned response declines. The steepest decline was observed in queens receiving an unconditioned stimulus of bee candy. These findings extend previous work on learning of Afrianized honey bee workers to a population of queen bees.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Agropecuária Laboratório Apícola, Universidade Federal da Paraíba, Bananeiras, Brazil. aquinobee@aol.com
authors.forename: Italo S
authors.initials: IS
authors.lastname: Aquino
authors.forename: Charles I
authors.initials: CI
authors.lastname: Abramson
authors.forename: Ademilson E E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Soares
authors.forename: Andrea Cardoso
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Fernandes
authors.forename: Danny
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Benbassat
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001070:Appetitive Behavior; D001245:Association Learning; D001516:Bees; D003214:Conditioning, Classical; D005108:Extinction, Psychological; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D012153:Retention, Psychology; D013045:Species Specificity; D013395:Sucrose; D013649:Taste
chemical_list: D013395:Sucrose