What a hawkmoth remembers after hibernation depends on innate preferences and conditioning situation
(2010) In Behavioral Ecology 21(5). p.1093-1097- Abstract
- Nectar-feeding insects find flowers by 2 means, innate preferences and learned associations. When insects that hibernate as imagos (i.e., adults) start foraging after a long winter break, what guides them to new nectar rewards? Are innate preferences kept over such a long period? And are learned associations useful after long breaks? In a series of experiments I show here that, depending on previous experience, the European hummingbird hawkmoth, Macroglossum stellatarum can use both types of information to choose a first flower after periods of 1 or 3 weeks. What is remembered seems to depend on innate preferences of the moths. Moths trained to feed from 1 of 2 colors that are equally attractive to naive moths keep the learned preference.... (More)
- Nectar-feeding insects find flowers by 2 means, innate preferences and learned associations. When insects that hibernate as imagos (i.e., adults) start foraging after a long winter break, what guides them to new nectar rewards? Are innate preferences kept over such a long period? And are learned associations useful after long breaks? In a series of experiments I show here that, depending on previous experience, the European hummingbird hawkmoth, Macroglossum stellatarum can use both types of information to choose a first flower after periods of 1 or 3 weeks. What is remembered seems to depend on innate preferences of the moths. Moths trained to feed from 1 of 2 colors that are equally attractive to naive moths keep the learned preference. Animals trained to prefer a less attractive color to an innately preferred color loose the learned preference and return to the innate choice behavior. I conclude that hummingbird hawkmoths can keep innate and learned preferences over a long period and are able to use both types of information when searching nectar rewards after long periods of hibernation. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/1677107
- author
- Kelber, Almut LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2010
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- stellatarum, Macroglossum, long-term memory, Lepidoptera, hummingbird hawkmoth, hibernation, hawkmoth, insects, color learning, innate preferences
- in
- Behavioral Ecology
- volume
- 21
- issue
- 5
- pages
- 1093 - 1097
- publisher
- Oxford University Press
- external identifiers
-
- wos:000280903900031
- scopus:77955911564
- ISSN
- 1045-2249
- DOI
- 10.1093/beheco/arq115
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 933fe9b6-ea22-4c59-8059-987227e55436 (old id 1677107)
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-01 15:04:36
- date last changed
- 2022-01-28 03:59:41
@article{933fe9b6-ea22-4c59-8059-987227e55436,
abstract = {{Nectar-feeding insects find flowers by 2 means, innate preferences and learned associations. When insects that hibernate as imagos (i.e., adults) start foraging after a long winter break, what guides them to new nectar rewards? Are innate preferences kept over such a long period? And are learned associations useful after long breaks? In a series of experiments I show here that, depending on previous experience, the European hummingbird hawkmoth, Macroglossum stellatarum can use both types of information to choose a first flower after periods of 1 or 3 weeks. What is remembered seems to depend on innate preferences of the moths. Moths trained to feed from 1 of 2 colors that are equally attractive to naive moths keep the learned preference. Animals trained to prefer a less attractive color to an innately preferred color loose the learned preference and return to the innate choice behavior. I conclude that hummingbird hawkmoths can keep innate and learned preferences over a long period and are able to use both types of information when searching nectar rewards after long periods of hibernation.}},
author = {{Kelber, Almut}},
issn = {{1045-2249}},
keywords = {{stellatarum; Macroglossum; long-term memory; Lepidoptera; hummingbird hawkmoth; hibernation; hawkmoth; insects; color learning; innate preferences}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{5}},
pages = {{1093--1097}},
publisher = {{Oxford University Press}},
series = {{Behavioral Ecology}},
title = {{What a hawkmoth remembers after hibernation depends on innate preferences and conditioning situation}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/beheco/arq115}},
doi = {{10.1093/beheco/arq115}},
volume = {{21}},
year = {{2010}},
}