Aussie crops: & individual differences in bees and
plasticity to adapt.
Tropical
Subtropical
Temperate
1000km
Adrian G. Dyer
RMIT University &
Monash University
Mango trees bursting with flowers
on a plantation near Kununurra,
WA. ABC Landline
Stanley 600 – 800 m ASL, 48 inch ann. rain.
Varieties inc Gala, Fuji, Cameo, Red Dels,
Cripps Pink, Granny Smith. + Pears
Production ca. 6-10 thousand bins / 500 hect.
for domestic market.
Parallel evolution of angiosperm colour signals: common
evolutionary pressures linked to hymenopteran vision
NH
Dyer AG, Boyd-Gerny S, McLoughlin S, Rosa MGP, Simonov V, Wong BBM (2012). Proc Roy
Soc B 279: 3606-3615.
Shrestha M, Dyer AG, Boyd-Gerny S, Wong BBM,
Burd M (2013) New Phytologist 198:301-310
Insect
Insect
& Bird
Bird
Burd, Stayton, Shrestha, Dyer 2014
Proc. R. Soc. B 281: 20132862.
Nepalese Himalayas
Alpine (n=62)
>3600m-4200m
(n=75)
800-1400m
Shrestha , Dyer, Bhattarai , Burd (2014) J of Ecology
102, 126-135.
A controlled illumination environment for bumblebee experiments.
Bees learn colour tasks differently depending upon conditioning.
Dyer & Chittka (2004) Naturwissenschaften 91, 224-227.
Giurfa (2004) Naturwissenschaften 91, 228-331.
Bees learn colour tasks differently depending upon conditioning.
abs
diff
Dyer & Chittka (2004) Naturwissenschaften 91, 224-227.
Dyer, Paulk & Reser (2011) Proc Roy Soc B 278: 952–959.
*Interestingly, the population of neurons exhibited a higher degree
of spike time precision (a measure of how well-timed the spikes
are relative to the stimulus) compared with the population of
posterior-projecting neurons
Bees exhibit speed for accuracy tradeoffs in colour discrimination
Flugarena
Videokam era
C
70 c m
A
70 c m
m
15 c m
c
20
44 c m
15 cm
15 cm
Projektor
B
50 c m
100 c m
175 c m
r = 0.723, p<0.05
r = 0.963, p<0.001
Percent correct choices
100
90
80
sugar vs water
70
sugar vs quinine
60
50
40
5
6
7
8
9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
Response time (sec)
Chittka, Dyer, Bock & Dornhaus (2003) Nature 424, 388.
Bees trade off speed for accuracy tradeoffs in colour discrimination tasks
Burns & Dyer (2008). Diversity of speed-accuracy strategies benefits
social insects. Current Biology 18, R953–R954.
With differential conditioning to a simultaneous colour discrimination task
honeybee colour discrimination was significantly better than bumblebee for
both blue and yellow colours.
Honeybee
Bumblebee
Honeybee
Bumblebee
Dyer, Spaethe & Prack (2008) J Comp Physiol A 194: 617–627
In honeybees the Green receptor is responsible for achromatic
vision when the target is at small visual angles (5<a<15º).
All 3 receptors provide input to a colour opponent system to enable
colour vision for stimuli subtending a large visual angle (>15º).
Giurfa et al. (1996) J Comp Physiol A 178, 699-709.
Bumblebee detection of stimuli
Honeybee
Stimulus 33N provides colour, but no G-receptor contrast and
bumblebees still detect this target at a visual angle of <3º, but honeybees
require the same stimulus to subtend an angle of >15º.
Dyer, Spaethe & Prack (2008) J Comp Physiol A 194: 617–627
Trigona cf. fuscipennis, a
stingless bee species from
Costa Rica
von Frisch (1914) Der Farbensinn
und Formensinn der Biene. Zool
Jahrb Allg Zool 35:1–188
Spaethe et al. (2014) Behavioural
evidence of colour vision in free
flying stingless bees. J Comp Physiol
A 10.1007/s00359-014-0886-2.
Conceptualization of above and below relationships by an insect
Avargues-Weber, Dyer & Giurfa. (2011) Proc Roy Soc. B 278, 898-905.
Avargues-Weber, Dyer & Giurfa. (2011) Proc Roy Soc. B 278, 898-905.
Simultaneous mastering of two abstract
concepts with a miniature brain
N=8; **p<0.01, ***p<0.001
Avarguès-Weber A, Dyer AG, Combe M, Giurfa M (2012) Proc Nat Acad Sci
(USA) 109, 7481-7486
Can bees bind visual and temperature cues?
Bees were allowed to visit
similarly coloured flowers (these
could be discriminated following
differential conditioning) for 100
visits.
N = 10 bees/group, flowers were
either at the same temperature
(control) or differed by 8ºC.
Dyer, Whitney, Arnold, Glover & Chittka (2006) Nature 442, 525.
Norgate M, Boyd-Gerny S, Simonov V, Rosa MGP, Heard TA, Dyer AG
(2010) PLoS ONE 5(8): e12000.
Acknowledgements
Martin Giurfa
Aurore Avargues-Weber
Christa Neumeyer
Lars Chittka
Johannes Spaethe
Marcello Rosa
Alan Dorin
David Reser.
Questions?
Adrian G Dyer:
adrian.dyer@rmit.edu.au
Alexander von Humboldt Foundation
Australian Research Council:
DP0878968 /DP0987989/ DP130100015