Data from: Honey bees modulate their olfactory learning in the presence of hornet predators and alarm component

In Southeast Asia the native honey bee species Apis cerana is often attacked by hornets (Vespa velutina), mainly in the period from April to November. During the co-evolution of these two species honey bees have developed several strategies to defend themselves such as learning the odors of hornets and releasing alarm components to inform other mates. However, so far little is known about whether and how honey bees modulate their olfactory learning in the presence of the hornet predator and alarm components of honey bee itself. In the present study, we test for associative olfactory learning of A. cerana in the presence of predator odors, the alarm pheromone component isopentyl acetate (IPA), or a floral odor (hexanal) as a control. The results show that bees can detect live hornet odors, that there is almost no association between the innately aversive hornet odor and the appetitive stimulus sucrose, and that IPA is less well associated with an appetitive stimulus when compared with a floral odor. In order to imitate natural conditions, e.g. when bees are foraging on flowers and a predator shows up, or alarm pheromone is released by a captured mate, we tested combinations of the hornet odor and floral odor, or IPA and floral odor. Both of these combinations led to reduced learning scores. This study aims to contribute to a better understanding of the prey-predator system between A. cerana and V. velutina.在东南亚地区，本土蜜蜂物种东方蜜蜂（Apis cerana）常遭黄脚胡蜂（Vespa velutina）侵袭，主要受害时段为4月至11月。在二者的协同演化历程中，东方蜜蜂演化出多种防御策略，例如识别胡蜂的气味并释放告警成分以告知同伴。然而截至目前，学界对蜜蜂在胡蜂捕食者气味以及自身告警成分存在的情况下，是否会调控其嗅觉学习、具体调控机制如何仍知之甚少。本研究针对东方蜜蜂在捕食者气味、告警信息素成分乙酸异戊酯（isopentyl acetate，IPA），以及作为对照的花香气味己醛（hexanal）环境下的联想嗅觉学习能力进行了测试。结果显示，蜜蜂可感知活体胡蜂的气味；天生具有厌恶性的胡蜂气味与奖赏性刺激蔗糖（sucrose）之间几乎无法建立关联；相较于花香气味，乙酸异戊酯与奖赏性刺激的关联程度更低。为模拟自然场景——例如蜜蜂在花丛中觅食时遭遇捕食者，或是被捕获的同伴释放告警信息素——我们设置了胡蜂气味与花香气味的组合，以及乙酸异戊酯与花香气味的组合，两类组合均导致学习得分下降。本研究旨在为深入理解东方蜜蜂与黄脚胡蜂之间的捕食-被捕食关系提供参考。