2Forschungsstelle fur Bienenkunde, Universitat Bremen, Postfatch28344, Bremen, Germany, E-mail: dorothea.brueckner@uni-bremen.de
UGC Academic Staff College, Bangalore University, Central College Campus, Bangalore-560 001, India.
1Corresponding author's E-mail: nagaraja@bub.ernet.in
Online published on 17 May, 2013.
The proboscis extension reflex (PER) is a classical behavioral trait used to determine the learning behavior in honeybees to odors. The experiments on olfactory learning and memory recall in drone bees of Apis m. carnica and Apis c. indica were conducted by conditioning to five odors (10-hydroxy (E)-2 decenoic acid (10-HDA), Isopentyl Acetate (IPA), Nerol, Citral and Octanol). The observations revealed that, the drones of both species responded to the test odours with varied degrees of learning and memory recall. The level of memory recall was high for 10-hdA followed by Nerol, Octanol and Citral. however, low response was recorded for IPA. The level of memory recall was greater in drones of A.c. indica than A.m. carnica. The highest level of learning and memory recall was recorded at 3 hrs. after conditioning. The level of memory recall gradually decreased over time.
Drone bees, PER conditioning, memory recall, IPA, 10-HDA, Nerol, Octanol, Citral
