Meeting Abstract
Bumblebees are an insect model organism for the study of animal cognition, due in part to their aptitude at learning and remembering stimuli while foraging. However, bumblebees are also in decline, in part due to exposure to pesticides that may alter their cognitive abilities. Thus, now is a critical time to fully understand bee cognition involved in their natural foraging behaviour, and how such cognition may be affected by anthropogenic stressors. In this talk, I highlight my recent findings on bumblebee cognition involved in foraging under ecologically realistic scenarios, as well as how neonicotinoid pesticides may be affecting sensory and/or cognitive traits. In particular, I discuss recent findings that neonicotinoid pesticide effects on learning may be modality-specific and what this might mean for bee cognition and foraging more broadly.
