Home › Neuroscience › A Novel Behavioral Assay to Investigate Gustatory Responses of Individual, Freely-moving Bumble Bees (Bombus terrestris)
Neuroscience JoVE (Open Access) Citable · DOI

A Novel Behavioral Assay to Investigate Gustatory Responses of Individual, Freely-moving Bumble Bees (Bombus terrestris)

DOI: 10.3791/54233-v
What you'll learn
  • ✓ Set up and execute a gustatory preference assay for freely-moving bumble bees
  • ✓ Prepare individual bees through starvation and habituation protocols
  • ✓ Interpret behavioral responses to nutrient and toxin solutions
Protocol

A novel behavioral assay is described for investigating the short term gustatory responses of the mouthparts of freely-moving bumble bees (Bombus terrestris) toward nutrients and toxins in solution.

Difficulty
intermediate
Total time
~2–3 hours per bee (including starvation and habituation phases)
Model organism
Bumble bee (Bombus terrestris)

Steps

1
Capture, starve, and habituate individual bumble bees

Capture individual bumble bees and subject them to starvation and habituation phases to standardize their physiological state and reduce stress responses before testing.

▶ 01:09
2
Conduct gustatory preference behavioral test

Present test solutions to the bee's mouthparts and record behavioral responses (acceptance, rejection, feeding duration) toward nutrient and toxin-laced solutions.

▶ 02:39
3
Analyze aversion responses to bitter compounds

Observe and quantify the bee's avoidance or rejection behaviors when exposed to quinine-laced sucrose, demonstrating gustatory discrimination.

▶ 05:11
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