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Octopamine modulates honey bee dance behavior.

Andrew B Barron1, Ryszard Maleszka, Robert K Vander Meer

  • 1Visual Sciences and Australian Research Council Centre for Molecular Genetics of Development, Research School of Biological Sciences, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
|January 24, 2007
PubMed
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Octopamine, a neuromodulator, influences honey bee dance language by increasing the reported value of food resources. This suggests octopamine plays a key role in how bees communicate reward information.

Area of Science:

  • Neuroethology
  • Animal Communication
  • Insect Behavior

Background:

  • Honey bees (Apis mellifera) use a complex dance language to communicate the location and quality of forage sites.
  • The neural basis underlying the generation and modulation of this dance language remains largely uncharacterized.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the role of the biogenic amine octopamine in modulating honey bee dance communication.
  • To determine if octopamine influences the reporting of resource value within the dance language.

Main Methods:

  • Forager honey bees were treated with controlled doses of octopamine (oral and topical).
  • Dance behaviors related to resource profitability were quantified.
  • Effects were assessed using an octopamine antagonist (mianserin) and by comparing responses for different resources (pollen, sucrose).

Related Experiment Videos

Main Results:

  • Octopamine treatment dose-dependently increased the reporting of resource value in bee dances.
  • Both pollen and sucrose dances showed similar responses to octopamine.
  • The observed effects of octopamine were abolished by mianserin treatment.

Conclusions:

  • Octopamine acts as a neuromodulator that specifically enhances the communication of floral reward value in honey bee dances.
  • This suggests octopamine alters the neural processing of reward information in the bee brain.
  • The findings provide an example of neural substrate adaptation for social evolution, extending octopamine's known role in appetitive behavior.