Investigating vector memory and navigation in bumblebees (Bombus terrestris)
(2023) BION03 20221Degree Projects in Biology
- Abstract
- Bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) are central place foragers, that have been shown to use path integration based vectors to navigate their environment. They also have remarkable learning and memory abilities, and can readily learn different cues. Recently, a behavioural assay has been developed that allows for rigorous testing of these mechanisms in a laboratory setting. This thesis aimed to use this assay to investigate these abilities in the context of vector navigation. Novel experiments have been designed to test whether bumblebees are able to store vector information in long-term memory, as well as associate separate vector memories with distinct locations. I show that walking bumblebees can indeed form, store and recall such long-term... (More)
- Bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) are central place foragers, that have been shown to use path integration based vectors to navigate their environment. They also have remarkable learning and memory abilities, and can readily learn different cues. Recently, a behavioural assay has been developed that allows for rigorous testing of these mechanisms in a laboratory setting. This thesis aimed to use this assay to investigate these abilities in the context of vector navigation. Novel experiments have been designed to test whether bumblebees are able to store vector information in long-term memory, as well as associate separate vector memories with distinct locations. I show that walking bumblebees can indeed form, store and recall such long-term memory vectors and use them to navigate in a laboratory setting. Furthermore, I present data suggesting that they are able to successfully update this information over a number of trials. I did not, however, find conclusive evidence about bumblebees being able to store separate vector memories associated with distinct locations. Overall, the study provides support for a newly established behavioural assay to test navigation behaviour in a laboratory setting, and opens avenues for further investigation. (Less)
- Popular Abstract
- The memory of a bumblebee
How many of you could visit a new restaurant in town, in a place you have never been to before, and honestly say you could find your way back home — alone, without the aid of GPS — via the shortest route possible? Now imagine that on top of that task, that your brain is only about the size of a grain of rice. And you are in fact a bumblebee.
Bumblebees, like many other insects, have a remarkable ability to navigate through their environment. They can travel extremely far, relative to their body size, and get back to their hive in a straight line, just by using various cues, such as the sun, the trees and other landmarks surrounding them. They do that by keeping track of the distances they cover and the turns... (More) - The memory of a bumblebee
How many of you could visit a new restaurant in town, in a place you have never been to before, and honestly say you could find your way back home — alone, without the aid of GPS — via the shortest route possible? Now imagine that on top of that task, that your brain is only about the size of a grain of rice. And you are in fact a bumblebee.
Bumblebees, like many other insects, have a remarkable ability to navigate through their environment. They can travel extremely far, relative to their body size, and get back to their hive in a straight line, just by using various cues, such as the sun, the trees and other landmarks surrounding them. They do that by keeping track of the distances they cover and the turns they make. Not only that, but they can also remember many of the features of the space they inhabit, as well as routes to different flower patches. Exactly how those mechanisms work is still relatively unclear. So how to go about studying something so complex?
One option is to take the bees out of their natural environment and test their behaviour in a laboratory. In an artificial arena, we can control what bees see, what they interact with, and how they interact with it. We can separate different processes involved in memory and navigation. To test one of these extraordinary features — the ability of bumblebees to store information about their position and the location of a place of interest, for prolonged periods of time — we designed a simple experiment. We taught bumblebees to find the spot where they could feed on sugar water and pollen, by using a distinct light pattern. We cannot see this pattern in the sky because our eyes cannot detect polarised light, but bumblebees like many other insects can! Once we changed that pattern, the bees still remembered the old one, and used that to find the food as well as their way back home. It takes them some time in the presence of the new cue, to actually start using it, rather than continue using the old information.
However, despite simplifying the setup as much as possible, it is important not to get too far away from what happens in nature. And we know that bumblebees don’t just visit one flower, or one flower patch when they are out collecting food. So, to test the mechanisms behind that, we presented bees with two very distinct locations in the artificial arena, where they could collect food from. To us, these locations looked very different — one yellow, with vertical black stripes, the other one blue with horizontal black stripes. However, bumblebees in the lab don’t always behave like we want them to, and it appears that they might not remember the locations in the way we expected them to. Perhaps the locations don’t seem different to them, or maybe there are other factors influencing the way they navigate between them.
These findings could be a great asset for developing new ways of testing how bumblebees remember different routes and locations. They could also be combined with information about the structure and function of the bumblebee brain, to help us understand insect memory and navigation. So next time you are out and about, exploring new places, try and keep track of where you are, where you are going and where you want to return to. And then remember that there are tiny, flying animals that do that effortlessly.
Master’s Degree Project in Biology, 60 credits, 2023
Department of Biology, Lund University
Advisor: Stanley Heinze
Advisors Unit/Department: Vision Group, Department of Biology, Lund University (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9113488
- author
- Zadel, Ana
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- BION03 20221
- year
- 2023
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- language
- English
- id
- 9113488
- date added to LUP
- 2023-04-14 15:57:09
- date last changed
- 2023-04-14 15:57:09
@misc{9113488,
abstract = {{Bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) are central place foragers, that have been shown to use path integration based vectors to navigate their environment. They also have remarkable learning and memory abilities, and can readily learn different cues. Recently, a behavioural assay has been developed that allows for rigorous testing of these mechanisms in a laboratory setting. This thesis aimed to use this assay to investigate these abilities in the context of vector navigation. Novel experiments have been designed to test whether bumblebees are able to store vector information in long-term memory, as well as associate separate vector memories with distinct locations. I show that walking bumblebees can indeed form, store and recall such long-term memory vectors and use them to navigate in a laboratory setting. Furthermore, I present data suggesting that they are able to successfully update this information over a number of trials. I did not, however, find conclusive evidence about bumblebees being able to store separate vector memories associated with distinct locations. Overall, the study provides support for a newly established behavioural assay to test navigation behaviour in a laboratory setting, and opens avenues for further investigation.}},
author = {{Zadel, Ana}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Investigating vector memory and navigation in bumblebees (Bombus terrestris)}},
year = {{2023}},
}