Public use of olfactory information associated with predation in two species of social bees
Recent studies have documented that social bees can use heterospecific information to find or avoid food resources, but little is known about whether bees gain information from heterospecifics about predation risk. We report the first detailed field tests in bees of hetero- and conspecific avoidance of olfactory information associated with predation. We determined whether Apis […]
Can bees simultaneously engage in adaptive foraging behaviour and attend to cryptic predators?
Bees foraging for nectar often have to discriminate between flowers with similar appearance but different nectar rewards. At the same time, they must be vigilant for ambush predators, such as crab spiders, which can camouflage themselves on flowers. We investigated whether bees, Bombus terrestris, can efficiently discriminate similar flower colours while exposed to predation threat […]