Abilities of honey bees Apis mellifera Linnaeus, 1758 and paper wasps Vespula spp. (Hymenoptera: Apidae, Vespidae) to situational learning

In field experiments, an insect was trained to choose one of two visually different figures – A or B – in reference to situation (“situational learning”). Bees and wasps were shown to be able: 1) to choose A and to reject B at one location (place) of presentation of test figures and vice versa at the other location (at a distance of 1–8 m); 2) to choose A and to reject B at C-colored background and vice versa at D-colored background (at constant location). It is the first evidence of bees’ ability to make decisions depending on background color and the first evidence of wasps’ ability to perform situational learning. The described behaviors resemble “conditioned switching”, which is well known in vertebrates. Statistically significant individual differences between conspecifics have been recorded. Резюме. В полевых экспериментах насекомое обучали выбирать одну из двух визуально различных фигур – A или B – в зависимости от ситуации (ситуационное обучение). Показано, что пчелы и осы способны: 1) выбирать A и отвергать B, если фигуры предъявляют на одном локальном участке фуражировочной территории, и, наоборот, выбирать B и отвергать A на другом участке, отстоящем от первого на 1–8 м; 2) выбирать A и отвергать B на фоне цвета C, а на фоне цвета D – наоборот. Способность пчел принимать решение в зависимости от цвета фона и способность ос к ситуационному обучению доказаны впервые. Описанные поведенческие события похожи на условнорефлекторное переключение, хорошо известное у позвоночных. Отмечены статистически достоверные индивидуальные различия среди изученных особей. Introduction This issue is dedicated to the memory of Professor G.M. Dlussky, who is well known as a distinguished myrmecologist. However, his scientific interests covered widespread field of problems. He dealt not only with ants but also with many Hymenoptera and other insects including their ecology and behavior, especially foraging behavior of anthophilous insects [e.g., Dlussky, 2002, 2013]. The last PhD thesis study (of Sergey Lysenkov) supervised by Dlussky was aimed at insect pollinating activity investigation (V. Kartsev had the pleasure to act as opponent at the defence of this interesting work; the main results are published in: Lysenkov, [2009a, b]). It is foraging that requires the most complicated behavior and decision-making to obtain food under irregular conditions. During foraging, many animals demonstrate well developed individual learning and even intelligence – ability to perform abstract mental operations. Regarding non-human animals, now it is called “cognition”. Professor G.A. Mazokhin-Porshnyakov provided the first evidence of insects’ intelligent behavior about 50 years ago; namely “generalization of visual stimuli” (discrimination of rewarded and unrewarded feeders different in special abstract characters) [Mazokhin-Porshnyakov, 1968;characters) [Mazokhin-Porshnyakov, 1968; Mazochin, 1969]. Since that moment, the honeybee has been serving as a model for investigation of cognition in insects. We also added paper wasps as an object of cognitive