Meeting Abstract
A well-studied behavior in bee pollination biology is floral sonication or buzz pollination. During sonication, bees grasp flowers and use vibrations to release pollen. Several researchers have suggested that flowers are tuned to release pollen when vibrated at specific frequencies, but there is little research about how bees respond and learn to modify their sonication behavior in response to pollen rewards. In this study, we built an experimental setup to quickly record and process bumble bees’ (Bombus impatiens) sonication buzzes. We then used an electronic dispensing system to deliver pollen rewards in real time, based on bees’ sonication frequency and amplitude. Using this setup, we were able to gain insight into some of the outstanding questions about floral sonication: 1.) Do the properties of the flower affect sonication frequency and/or amplitudes? 2.) Do bees change their sonication frequency to match the frequency at which the flower releases pollen? 3.) How do bees change their sonication properties when they stop receiving pollen rewards? Using data from over 30,000 sonication buzzes by more than 100 individual bumble bees, we answered some of the questions above. We found that heavy flowers caused a reduction in sonication amplitude, but no change in sonication frequency. We found no evidence that bees learned to change their foraging vibrations, based on the frequency that released the largest amount of pollen. However, we found some evidence that bees follow a predictable behavioral routine when they don’t receive a pollen reward. Overall, our approach enabled us to quickly and reproducibly conduct experiments to understand the extent to which and the reasons why bumble bees modify their sonication behavior.
