Social signaling effects on learning in honey bee (Apis mellifera sp.) workers and drones

Our study aims to determine the effect of social signaling on the honey bee female worker and honey bee male (drone) learning ability.  For our learning challenge we use a conditioned place preference assay which presents color as a discriminant factor of punishment (mild shock).   Our methodology examines how learning is affected by presentations of two socially relevant signals:  components of alarm pheromone (isoamyl acetate) and Nasonov’s gland pheromone (geraniol).  Male and female learning performance in presence and absence of social signals were contrasted.  We discuss how such comparative studies can provide further insights into mechanisms of social behaviors.