Table 1.
Summary of the experiments examining the impact of prior experience, novelty and frequency dependence on the choice of flower colour in bumble-bees
| Experiment | Trained on flowers | Tested on flowers |
|---|---|---|
| Prior experience | 50B:50W | Natural painted |
| Natural not painted | ||
| Artificial | ||
| Blue only | Natural painted | |
| Artificial | ||
| White only | Natural painted | |
| Artificial | ||
| Novelty | Blue only | 80B:20W |
| 50B:50W | ||
| 20B:80W | ||
| Frequency dependence | 80B:20W | 80B:20W |
| 50B:50W | 50B:50W | |
| 20B:80W | 20B:80W |
For prior experience, bumble-bees were trained on all white, all blue or 50B:50W flower arrays and tested on pairs of one white and one blue flower using either natural or artificial flowers (dual choice assay).
For novelty, bees were trained on all blue flowers and tested on experimental arrays of 80B:20W (blue:white), 50B:50W or 20B:80W flowers.
For frequency dependence, bees were trained and tested on similar experimental arrays of either 80B:20W, 50B:50W or 20B:80W flowers.