The effects of rearing temperature on developmental stability and learning and memory in the honey bee, Apis mellifera
The effects of rearing temperature on developmental stability and learning
and memory in the honey bee, Apis mellifera
short-term learning and memory abilities of adult workers are affected by the temperature they experienced during pupal development. In contrast, long-term learning and memory is not significantly affected by rearing temperature.
adult workers that pupate at 36-C are normal with respect to their performance of communication dances. However adult workers that pupated at 32-C are less likely to perform dances and perform shorter ones
adult workers that pupated at 36-C show better performance in PER tests than workers that pupated at the normal hive temperature of 34.5-C or the lower bound of 32-C bees reared at 35 and 36-C havea better ST memory workers that pupate at 36-C, at least 1-C higher than normal brood nest temperature (Jones et al. 2004), perform better in ST memory tests, than workers reared at lower temperatures. Why then, do workers maintain the brood nest temperature at 34.5-C if temperatures slightly higher than normal are beneficial for behaviours associated with foraging task performance? One possibility is that incubation at higher temperatures is too energetically expensive for colonies.