New Paradigm to Analyze Extensive Post-reinforcement or Social Reinforcement Delays in Free-flying Honey Bees (Apis Mellifera)

Abstract

We have developed a novel paradigm to study and analyze how free-flying honey bees (Apis mellifera) react when presented with varying schedules of post-reinforcement delays of either 0s, 300s, or 600s. We measured inter-visit-interval, response length, inter-response-time, and response rate in addition to monitoring temperature. Honey bees exposed to these large intervals react in multiple patterns compared to groups not encountering delays. Three patterns of inter-visit-intervals were observed, and in most cases, the experimental bees had larger inter-visit-intervals when encountering the post-reinforcement delays. Based on response length, we believe adjunctive responses were observed during the delay intervals. We saw no group differences in inter-response time. Honey bees with larger response rates tended to not finish the experiment while the removal of the delay intervals increased subject response rates for those subjects that completed the trials. Our findings and protocol lead us to consider we have in fact studied social pre-reinforcement delays.