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positive: the importance of in pollinator cognitive ecology A commentary on Detection and of floral electric fields by Mathieu Lihoreau, Nigel Raine

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Mathieu Lihoreau, Nigel Raine. Bee positive: the importance of electroreception in pollinator cognitive ecology A commentary on Detection and learning of floral electric fields by bumblebees. Frontiers in Psychology, Frontiers, 2013, pp.445. ￿10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00445￿. ￿hal-01146952￿

HAL Id: hal-01146952 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01146952 Submitted on 30 Apr 2015

HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. GENERAL COMMENTARY published: 17 July 2013 doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00445 Bee positive: the importance of electroreception in pollinator cognitive ecology

Mathieu Lihoreau 1*andNigelE.Raine2

1 School of Biological Sciences and the Charles Perkins Centre, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia 2 School of Biological Sciences, Royal Holloway University of London, Egham, Surrey, UK *Correspondence: [email protected] Edited by: Ken Cheng, Macquarie University, Australia Reviewed by: Björn Brembs, University of Regensburg, Germany

A commentary on described how a bee visit temporarily figure-of-eight-shaped circuit performed modifies the electric charge of (Petunia) by foragers upon their return to the nest Detection and learning of floral electric flowers, suggesting that floral electric to communicate the location of rewarding fields by bumblebees properties could be used by future vis- flowers to nestmates (Von Frisch, 1967). byClarke,D.,Whitney,H.,Sutton,G.,and itors to assess the reward value without Comparison of electrical recordings to Robert, D. (2013). Science 340, 66–69. doi: necessarily needing to probe the flower. video clips of dancing revealed that 10.1126/science.1230883 To explore this possibility, the authors the sequence of wing beats and abdomen Reception and learning of electric fields in used differential conditioning in which movements performed by dancers gen- bees bees were trained to associate an electri- erates a specific modulated electric field by Greggers, U., Koch, G., Schmidt, V., cally charged feeder (30 V) with a sucrose composed of pulses of several hundred + Dürr, A., Floriou-Servou, A., Piepenbrock, reward (CS ) and an uncharged feeder volts. To test whether bees can detect and − D., Göpfert, M. C., and Menzel, R. (2013). with an aversive quinine solution (CS ). discriminate such electric cues, the team Proc. R. Soc. B 280:20130528. doi: 10.1098/ After extensive training (50 trials), bees stimulated tethered bees with either con- rspb.2013.0528 chose the rewarding feeder in around 80% stant or modulated electric fields. Stimuli of trials. Similar levels of performance mimicking those of a waggle dancer The global atmospheric circuit gener- were observed when bees were trained (among others) triggered both antennal ates a permanent electric field between with two feeders carrying the same charge movements and walking activity, suggest- the Earth surface and outer atmosphere but different electric field patterns (homo- ing that electric cues from conspecifics (Rycroft et al., 2000). The ground and geneous vs. bull’s eye shape), indicating evoke behavioral responses in a social con- plants conductively linked to it are neg- that these insects can learn both the mag- text. atively charged (Bowker and Crenshaw, nitude and geometry of an electric field. To identify the sensory receptors 2007), whereas animals build up positive Bees learned to perform even better in involved in electroreception the authors charge as they move in contact with air discrimination tasks if the two feeders dif- used proboscis extension response con- molecules (Jackson and McGonigle, 2005). fered both in color (shade of green) and ditioning, a classical paradigm to study Electric fields emanating from plants and their electric field pattern compared to if olfactory learning and memory (Tadeka, pollinators, such as bees, are believed to they differed only in color. Natural elec- 1961; Menzel, 2012). Harnessed honeybees promote pollination by enabling pollen tric fields around flowers may therefore were trained to associate an electrically grains to “jump” from flowers to pol- contribute to the multimodal sources of charged stimulus (CS+)withasucrose linators and vice versa (Corbet et al., information that bees use to learn and reward while an uncharged stimulus 1982). Two recent studies reveal that bees memorize floral rewards, in conjunction (CS−) was not rewarded. Whilst intact not only detect these electric fields but with color, pattern, shape, texture, humid- bees rapidly learned to discriminate the also learn to discriminate them, indicat- ity, or warmth (e.g., Stach et al., 2004; electrical stimulus, those whose anten- ing that electroreception should be seri- Dyer et al., 2006; Raine and Chittka, nae had either been removed or entirely ously considered alongside vision and 2008). coated with wax (to prevent move- olfaction when studying bee behavior and In another study published in the ment and block sensory receptors) were ecology. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, unable to learn this cue. Interestingly, Writing in Science, Clarke et al. (2013) Greggers et al. (2013) went a step fur- if only the antennal articulations were demonstrated that bumblebees (Bombus ther asking both about the mechanisms free of wax, bees could detect vibra- terrestris) detect electric fields around of electroreception and their potential tions and were able to discriminate and plants and learn to use them to decide role in communication. They measured learn electrical cues to some extent. whether or not to visit flowers. Using the electric fields emanating from honey- Electrophysiological recordings of the a Faraday pail to measure electric fields bees (Apis mellifera)invariouscontexts, mechanosensory neurons in the Johnston’s generated by bees and plants, the team including during the “”: the organ, a structure located in the second

www.frontiersin.org July 2013 | Volume 4 | Article 445 | 1 Lihoreau and Raine Electroreception in pollinators

antennal segment involved in detecting and route finding. Experimental manip- Jackson, C. W., Hunt, E., Sharkh, S., and Newland, P. acoustic vibrations (Ai, 2010), confirmed ulations of local electric fields in bees’ L. (2011). Static electric fields modify the locomo- that electric stimulation induces neu- foraging areas could test this hypothe- tory behaviour of . J. Exp. Biol. 2014, 2020–2026. doi: 10.1242/jeb.053470 ronal responses. Therefore, much in the sis and help to clarify the importance Lihoreau, M., Chittka, L., and Raine, N. E. (2010). same way as body hairs are thought to of “electrical cognition” in these ani- Travel optimization by foraging bumblebees contribute to human electric field per- mals. through re-adjustments of traplines after discovery ception (Chapman et al., 2005), passive of new feeding locations. Am. Nat. 176, 744–757. antennal deflection caused by electrical ACKNOWLEDGMENTS doi: 10.1086/657042 Lihoreau, M., Raine, N. E., Reynolds, A. M., Stelzer, stimulation may activate mechanosensory This work was supported by an Australian R. J., Lim, K. S., Smith, A. D., et al. (2012). organs responsible for electroreception Research Council postdoctoral fellowship Radar tracking and motion-sensitive cameras in bees. to Mathieu Lihoreau. on flowers reveal the development of pollina- The observation that insects can tor multi-destination routes over large spatial electric fields is not new. Indeed, it scales. PLoS Biol. 10:e1001392. doi: 10.1371/jour- REFERENCES nal.pbio.1001392 Ai, H. (2010). Vibration-processing interneurons in has long been known that electric fields Menzel, R. (2012). The honeybee as a model for the honeybee . Front. Syst. Neurosci. 3:19. doi: induce a range of behavioral responses understanding the basis of cognition. Nat. Rev. 10.3389/neuro.06.019.2009 Neurosci. 13, 758–768. doi: 10.1038/nrn3357 in , cockroaches, mosquitoes, fruit Bowker, G. E., and Crenshaw, H. C. (2007). Newland, P. 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J., navigation at dusk. Science 183, 550–551. doi: Glover, B. J., and Chittka, L. (2006). Bees associate context: both to assess the pollination sta- 10.1126/science.183.4124.550 tusofflowersandtocommunicatetheir warmth with floral colour. Nature 442, 525. doi: locations. Like many nectarivores, bees 10.1038/442525a Greenberg, B., Bindokas, V. P., Frazier, M. Received: 18 June 2013; accepted: 27 June 2013; face complex routing problems to effi- J., and Gauger, J. R. (1981). Response of published online: 17 July 2013. ciently visit continuously replenishing and honey bees, Apis mellifera L.,tohighvolt- Citation: Lihoreau M and Raine NE (2013) Bee positive: patchily distributed resources (Lihoreau age transmission lines. Environ. Entomol. 10, the importance of electroreception in pollinator cogni- et al., 2010, 2012). Electric fields natu- 600–610. tive ecology. Front. Psychol. 4:445. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg. rally emanating from important features Greggers, U., Koch, G., Schmidt, V., Dürr, A., 2013.00445 Floriou-Servou, A., Piepenbrock, D., et al. (2013). This article was submitted to Frontiers in Comparative of their environment, such as the nest Reception and learning of electric fields in bees. Psychology, a specialty of Frontiers in Psychology. (hive), flower patches, bushes, or tree- Proc. R. Soc. B 280:20130528. doi: 10.1098/rspb. Copyright © 2013 Lihoreau and Raine. This is an lines, could provide relevant informa- 2013.0528 open-access article distributed under the terms of the tion in addition to visual cues (Chittka Jackson, C., and McGonigle, D. (2005). Effect of Creative Commons Attribution License,whichpermits surface material on electrostatic charge of house- use, distribution and reproduction in other forums, pro- et al., 1995), polarized light (Wellington, flies (Musca domestica L.) as they walk on a vided the original authors and source are credited and 1974), or magnetic fields (Collett and dieletric surface. J. Electrost. 58, 803–805. doi: subject to any copyright notices concerning any third- Baron, 1994) to assist accurate navigation 10.1016/j.elstat.2005.03.075 party graphics etc.

Frontiers in Psychology | July 2013 | Volume 4 | Article 445 | 2