Honey bees (Apis mellifera) as explosives detectors: exploring proboscis extension reflex conditioned response to trinitrotolulene (TNT)

Taylor-mccabe, Kirsten J; Wingo, Robert M; Haarmann, Timothy K

Title: Honey bees (Apis mellifera) as explosives detectors: exploring proboscis extension reflex conditioned response to trinitrotolulene (TNT)

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Abstract

We examined honey bee's associative learning response to conditioning with trinitrotolulene (TNT) vapor concentrations generated at three temperatures and their ability to be reconditioned after a 24 h period. We used classical conditioning of the proboscis extension (PER) in honey bees using TNT vapors as the conditioned stimulus and sucrose as the unconditioned stimulus. We conducted fifteen experimental trials with an explosives vapor generator set at 43 C, 25 C and 5 C, producing three concentrations of explosives (1070 ppt, 57 ppt, and 11 ppt). Our objective was to test the honey bee's ability to exhibit a conditioned response to TNT vapors at all three concentrations by comparing the mean percentage of honey bees successfully exhibiting a conditioned response within each temperature group. Furthermore, we conducted eight experimental trials to test the honey bee's ability to retain their ability to exhibit a conditioned response to TNT after 24h period by comparing the mean percentage of honey bees with a conditioned response TNT on the first day compared to the percentage of honey bees with a conditioned response to TNT on the second day. Results indicate that there was no significant difference between the mean percentage of honey bees with amore »« less

Authors:

Taylor-mccabe, Kirsten J ^[1]; Wingo, Robert M ^[1]; Haarmann, Timothy K ^[1]

Los Alamos National Laboratory

Publication Date:: 2008-01-01

Research Org.:: Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:: USDOE

OSTI Identifier:: 964982

Report Number(s):: LA-UR-08-07100; LA-UR-08-7100
Journal ID: ISSN 0044-8435; APDGB5; TRN: US200919%%415

DOE Contract Number:: AC52-06NA25396

Resource Type:: Journal Article

Journal Name:: Apidologie

Additional Journal Information:: Journal Name: Apidologie; Journal ID: ISSN 0044-8435

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Subject:: 55; BEES; EXPLOSIVES; HONEY; LEARNING; SACCHAROSE; TNT; TRAINING; VAPOR GENERATORS

Citation Formats


                    Taylor-mccabe, Kirsten J, Wingo, Robert M, and Haarmann, Timothy K. Honey bees (Apis mellifera) as explosives detectors: exploring proboscis extension reflex conditioned response to trinitrotolulene (TNT).  United States: N. p., 2008. 
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                    Taylor-mccabe, Kirsten J, Wingo, Robert M, & Haarmann, Timothy K. Honey bees (Apis mellifera) as explosives detectors: exploring proboscis extension reflex conditioned response to trinitrotolulene (TNT).  United States.

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                    Taylor-mccabe, Kirsten J, Wingo, Robert M, and Haarmann, Timothy K. 2008.  
        "Honey bees (Apis mellifera) as explosives detectors: exploring proboscis extension reflex conditioned response to trinitrotolulene (TNT)".  United States.  https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/964982.

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@article{osti_964982,

  title        = {Honey bees (Apis mellifera) as explosives detectors: exploring proboscis extension reflex conditioned response to trinitrotolulene (TNT)},

  author       = {Taylor-mccabe, Kirsten J and Wingo, Robert M and Haarmann, Timothy K},

  abstractNote = {We examined honey bee's associative learning response to conditioning with trinitrotolulene (TNT) vapor concentrations generated at three temperatures and their ability to be reconditioned after a 24 h period. We used classical conditioning of the proboscis extension (PER) in honey bees using TNT vapors as the conditioned stimulus and sucrose as the unconditioned stimulus. We conducted fifteen experimental trials with an explosives vapor generator set at 43 C, 25 C and 5 C, producing three concentrations of explosives (1070 ppt, 57 ppt, and 11 ppt). Our objective was to test the honey bee's ability to exhibit a conditioned response to TNT vapors at all three concentrations by comparing the mean percentage of honey bees successfully exhibiting a conditioned response within each temperature group. Furthermore, we conducted eight experimental trials to test the honey bee's ability to retain their ability to exhibit a conditioned response to TNT after 24h period by comparing the mean percentage of honey bees with a conditioned response TNT on the first day compared to the percentage of honey bees with a conditioned response to TNT on the second day. Results indicate that there was no significant difference between the mean percentage of honey bees with a conditioned response to TNT vapors between three temperature groups. There was a significant difference between the percentage of honey bees exhibiting conditioned response on the first day of training compared to the percentage of honey bees exhibiting conditioned response 24 h after training. Our experimental results indicate that honey bees can be trained to exhibit a conditioned response to a range of TNT concentrations via PER However, it appears that the honey bee's ability to retain the conditioned response to TNT vapors after 24h significantly decreases.},

  doi          = {},

  url          = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/964982},
  journal      = {Apidologie},

  issn         = {0044-8435},

  number       = ,

  volume       = ,

  place        = {United States},

  year         = {2008},

  month        = {1}

}

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