Overview
- Queen Mary University of London researchers trained Bombus terrestris to associate one light duration with sugar and the other with bitter quinine in a controlled maze.
- Bees continued to pick the previously rewarded duration when sugar was removed, indicating decisions based on timing rather than scent or location.
- Stimulus positions were varied between trials to rule out spatial cues, and individuals trained to a criterion such as 15 correct choices out of 20.
- Experiments used contrasts including 5 seconds versus 1 second and 2.5 seconds versus 0.5 seconds, showing robust duration discrimination.
- The study, published in Biology Letters (DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2025.0440), is presented as the first demonstration of dot‑dash duration discrimination in an insect and calls for research into the neural basis and evolutionary role of this timing ability.