Journal
BIOLOGY LETTERS
Volume 15, Issue 7, Pages -Publisher
ROYAL SOC
DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2019.0359
Keywords
bumblebee; Bombus impatiens; imidacloprid; cognition
Categories
Funding
- USDA NIFA postdoctoral fellowship
- USDA NIFA [2018-67014-27543]
- L'Oreal for Women in Science fellowship
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Neonicotinoid pesticides can impair bees' ability to learn and remember information about flowers, critical for effective foraging. Although these effects on cognition may contribute to broader effects on health and performance, to date they have largely been assayed in simplified protocols that consider learning in a single sensory modality, usually olfaction. Given that real flowers display a variety of potentially useful signals, we assessed the effects of acute neonicotinoid exposure on multimodal learning in free-flying bumblebees. We found that neonicotinoid consumption differentially impacted learning of floral stimuli, impairing scent, but not colour, learning. These findings raise questions about the mechanisms by which pesticides might differentially impair sensory systems, with implications for how neonicotinoids affect multiple aspects of bee ecology.
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