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Does quantity matter to a stingless bee?

Johanna Eckert1,2, Manuel Bohn3, Johannes Spaethe4

  • 1Department of Comparative Cultural Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103, Leipzig, Germany. johanna_eckert@eva.mpg.de.

Animal Cognition
|November 23, 2021
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Stingless bees can discriminate quantities, with performance varying based on reward. Quantity is more salient than shape but not color or surface area for these pollinators.

Keywords:
Associative learningBehavioral experimentsInsectsNumerical cognitionQuantity discriminationTrigona fuscipennis

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Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Ecology
  • Animal Behavior
  • Neuroethology

Background:

  • Quantitative abilities are crucial for decision-making across species.
  • While vertebrates are well-studied, insect quantitative cognition, particularly in pollinators, is less understood.
  • It's debated whether insects use quantity as a primary cue or a last resort.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the quantity discrimination abilities of the stingless bee (Trigona fuscipennis).
  • To determine the salience of quantity compared to other visual features like shape, color, and surface area.
  • To understand the role of quantitative information in invertebrate foraging strategies.

Main Methods:

  • Wild, free-flying stingless bees were trained to distinguish between stimuli with one and four elements.
  • Four experiments tested bees' choices between stimuli varying in quantity, shape, color, or surface area.
  • Performance was analyzed based on discrimination accuracy and choice preferences.

Main Results:

  • Stingless bees demonstrated the ability to discriminate between quantities (one vs. four elements).
  • Discrimination performance was influenced by which quantity was rewarded.
  • Quantity was a more salient cue than shape, but not more salient than color or surface area.

Conclusions:

  • Small-brained stingless bees possess basic quantitative abilities, similar to honeybees.
  • Invertebrate pollinators utilize quantity as a salient stimulus dimension, not solely as a last resort.
  • This research expands our understanding of numerical cognition evolution in invertebrates.