Presentation Details
| Bumblebee queens differ in brain morphology but not learning performance across life stages. Leeah I Richardson1, Shalene Jha1, Christopher M Jernigan2, Felicity Muth1, 3. 1University of Texas Austin, Austin, Texas, USA.2Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA.3University of California Davis, Davis, California, USA |
Abstract
Animals’ cognition and nerual investment is shaped by ecology. Social bumblebees face distinct pressures over time. Future-queens (gynes) and workers share challenges as they both forage to provision a colony, but as gynes develop into queens, they stop foraging and remain in the underground colony to reproduce. Gynes are better visual learners than workers, but we know little about how cognition changes as a gyne transitions to a queen. We compared bumblebee color learning and brain morphology across workers, gynes, and queens. We hypothesized that nest-bound queens would perform worse at visual tasks and invest less in visual brain regions. However, we found gynes and queens were equally good at color learning and performed better than workers. Reproductive queens had larger olfactory regions than gynes, while visual regions did not differ. Queen brains do not shrink when they transition to a nest-bound reproductive stage, and may even expand – with disproportionate investment in olfaction. We also found brain regions vary by body size differently across castes. These results highlight how shifts in ecological role across the lifecycle shape cognition and neural investment.
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No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author.
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