Exploring Preference Choices in Bombus impatiens and the Impact of Captivity on Decision Making

Presenter

Molly Brewer

Campus

UMass Amherst

Sponsor

Lynn Adler, Department of Biology, UMass Amherst

Schedule

Session 4, 2:30 PM - 3:15 PM [Schedule by Time][Poster Grid for Time/Location]

Location

Poster Board A21, Campus Center Auditorium, Row 2 (A21-A40) [Poster Location Map]

Abstract

Understanding the factors that affect decision making in an organism is important, and for pollinators this information can support the efforts to protect them. Many factors are responsible for the decline of bee populations, but one factor of note is the spread of infectious pathogens. Although the spread of pathogens can be achieved through the shared use of flowers, these flowers may produce chemicals that aid in reducing infection. Monarda fistulosa (wild bergamot) plants can produce the secondary metabolite, thymol that can reduce the concentration of the gut pathogen, Crithidia bombi, in Bombus impatiens (common eastern bumblebee). Monarda fistulosa plants have different chemotypes, meaning each individual plant can produce a different monoterpene. One common monoterpene produced by M. fistulosa is thymol, but other chemotypes can produce linalool, which has no evidence for reducing C. bombi infection. Given this, we hypothesized that bees infected with C. bombi would self-medicate by preferring to consume thymol over linalool. To test this hypothesis, we offered infected and uninfected B. impatiens a choice between solutions containing 10 ppm of linalool or thymol and tallied the amount of visits to each.

We found that there was no significant difference in preference for the monoterpene solutions between infection or uninfected bees. There was marginal preference for consumption of linalool over thymol overall, and bees significantly preferred to visit the linalool solution first. Our results also suggest an unknown benefit to consuming linalool over thymol that does not contribute to the infection reduction in B. impatiens.

Keywords

Bumblebees, Bombus impatiens, Crithidia bombi , pollinator pathogens, self-medication

Research Area

Biological Organisms

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