Published in

The Royal Society, Biology Letters, 7(15), p. 20190359, 2019

DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2019.0359

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Modality-specific impairment of learning by a neonicotinoid pesticide

Journal article published in 2019 by Felicity Muth ORCID, Jacob S. Francis ORCID, Anne S. Leonard
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

Neonicotinoid pesticides can impair bees' ability to learn and remember information about flowers, critical for effective foraging. Although these effects on cognition may contribute to broader effects on health and performance, to date they have largely been assayed in simplified protocols that consider learning in a single sensory modality, usually olfaction. Given that real flowers display a variety of potentially useful signals, we assessed the effects of acute neonicotinoid exposure on multimodal learning in free-flying bumblebees. We found that neonicotinoid consumption differentially impacted learning of floral stimuli, impairing scent, but not colour, learning. These findings raise questions about the mechanisms by which pesticides might differentially impair sensory systems, with implications for how neonicotinoids affect multiple aspects of bee ecology.