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The Attraction of Africanized
Honey Bees (Apis mellifera L.)
to Soft Drinks and Perfumes
CHARLES I. ABRAMSON
Department of Psychology
Oklahoma State University
ITALO S. AQUINO
GERSON A. AZEREDO
JOSE R. M. FILHO
Laboratório Apícola
Unversidade Federal da Paraiba, Brazil
JAMES M. PRICE
Department of Psychology
Oklahoma State University
ABSTRACT . The attraction of Africanized
bees to soft drinks and perfumes was investi
gated. In the first experiment, the ability of bees to discriminate between two
perfumes
(Realm for Men and Realm for Women) was assessed. The results indicated that the
scents
could be used as conditioned stimuli. In the second experiment, bees were
divided into
individual groups and confined to small metal tubes. Groups were fed either Diet
Pepsi,
spring water (control), Diet Guaraná,
Diet Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola, Sprite, Pepsi, Guaraná,
Sukita Orange, Fanta Orange, Fanta Grape, or sucrose (control). The dependent
variable
was the amount of time the bee's proboscis was in contact with a strip of filter
paper sat
urated with the substance. The results indicated little or no contact with the
diet soft drinks
and spring water, 45-65 s of contact with Coca-Cola, Sprite, Pepsi, Guaraná,
and Sukita
Orange, and 75-140 s of contact with Fanta Orange, Fanta Grape, and sucrose
(sucrose
elicited the most contact of the substances tested). In a third experiment, the
ability of bees
to associate an odor with a soft drink was assessed in a discrimination task.
With Citral
and Geraniol as conditioned stimuli, conditioning was best to sucrose, Guaraná,
and Fanta
Orange. Little conditioning was observed with Pepsi, and no conditioning was
observed
with Diet Pepsi.
THE PROBOSCIS-EXTENSION REFLEX has become
invaluable in studying a
wide range of behavioral, genetic, and neurobiological phenomena in European
honey bees (EHBs). The reflex is studied by confining bees in small metal har
nesses. One or more presentations of an odor and sucrose feeding increases the
frequency of background emissions of proboscis extension to odor ( Smith &
Abstract
Mice that ingested a suspension of guarana (Paullinia cupana,
Sapindaceae) in a dose of 0.3 mg/ml showed a significant increase in physical
capacity when subjected to a stressful situation such as forced swimming after
100 and 200 days of treatment. Such an effect, however, was not obtained with
a concentration of 3.0 mg/ml, nor with the ingestion of a suspension of
ginseng 5.0 mg/ml, nor of a solution of caffeine 0.1 mg/ml. Guarana, both
after a single (3.0 and 30 mg/kg) or chronic administrations (0.3 mg/ml), was
able to partially reverse the amnesic effect of scopolamine as measured
through a passive avoidance test in mice and rats, indicating a positive
effect on memory acquisition. However, no effect was observed when an active
avoidance task was used in rats, even after 20 days of guarana administration.
There was also a tendency of rats treated with 0.3 mg/ml of guarana to better
maintain the memory of a Lashley III maze path. The animals had the same
average lifespan, indicating a low toxicity of guarana, even after 23 months
of treatment.
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