Teaching Bumblebees to Differentiate Flower Patterns
- Beschreibung
Are you interested in how animal behavior experiments are actually done in practice? In this project, you’ll explore whether bumblebees can be trained to distinguish between different flower patterns of the Siberian iris (Iris sibirica). Rather than starting with a perfectly optimized system, this project focuses on building an experimental setup from the ground up and testing what is realistically achievable.
The goal is simple but ambitious: can we establish a working system where bumblebees can be kept, trained, and tested under controlled conditions?
No prior experience with animal experiments is required, just curiosity, reliability, and a willingness to engage in hands-on work!
Background
Pollination biology and learning in bees
Flower color and pattern play an important role in how pollinators locate and handle flowers. Many plant species display distinct pigmentation patterns, such as veins, spots, or contrasting color regions that may function as “nectar guides”, helping pollinators to forage more efficiently. Experimental studies have shown that bumblebees are capable of learning and using such visual cues. For example, bees can learn to discriminate between flowers that differ only subtly in pigmentation patterns, even when these differences are not strongly visible at first glance.Importantly, these preferences are often not innate but learned through experience, meaning that controlled training experiments are essential to understand how bees perceive and use floral signals.
Why Iris sibirica?
The Siberian iris (Iris sibirica) is an excellent model species for studying visual pattern recognition. Its flowers display striking and variable patterns, including contrasting colors and venation, which are likely relevant for pollinator attraction. At the same time, these patterns are visually distinct enough to serve as experimental stimuli for behavioral tests.
Experimental reality (and uncertainty)
While the scientific background is well established, setting up such experiments is non-trivial. Maintaining healthy bumblebee colonies, designing training protocols, and ensuring consistent experimental conditions all require careful planning and continuous attention.
This project therefore takes a deliberately exploratory approach. Before asking detailed scientific questions, we first need to determine whether a reliable experimental system can be established at all.
Tasks
- Experimental setup development: Establish protocols for handling bees and presenting artificial or real flowers.
- Colony maintenance: Monitor and maintain bumblebee hives (feeding, health, activity) and ensure stable conditions over time.
- Training protocol exploration: Implement simple conditioning experiments (reward vs. non-reward) and test whether bees interact with and respond to the presented stimuli.
- Feasibility testing: Evaluate whether consistent training and repeated trials are possible, identify practical limitations and optimize procedures.
- (Optional, if everything works well) Pilot experiment: Test whether bees can discriminate between different Iris sibirica patterns.
Expected Outcome
- A working (or critically evaluated) experimental setup for bumblebee behavioral studies.
- Documentation of protocols for hive maintenance and training procedures.
- A feasibility assessment: what works, what doesn’t, and why.
- (If successful) First exploratory data on pattern discrimination in Iris sibirica.
- Projektzeitraum
- Sommersemester 2026
- Bewerbungszeitraum
- 07. bis 20.04.2026
- Durchführung
- nach Absprache
- Details zu Projektzeitraum und Durchführung
This project is intentionally open-ended and hands-on. The main goal is not to produce perfect data, but to establish whether the system itself can work under realistic conditions.
Because continuous monitoring of the bees is required, the project will be carried out in a small team, allowing responsibilities to be shared and ensuring reliable coverage.
The experimental design is inspired by established behavioral studies on bumblebee learning but will be simplified and adapted to practical constraints.
This project requires regular in-person presence, as the bees need continuous care and monitoring. The workload will be shared within the group, allowing flexibility in scheduling while ensuring that the experimental system is maintained.
- Studienfach
- offen für alle Studienfächer
- Betreuende
- Ryck Leberecht
- Institut
- Institut für Biologie (190) (Plant Evolutionary Biology, 190b)
- Sprache
- deutsch/englisch
- Teilnehmendenanzahl
- min. 1, max. 5
- Arbeitsaufwand
-
ca. 180 Stunden pro Teilnehmende:r
| 6
ECTS-Punkte
Arbeitsaufwand (Stunden und ggf. ECTS) sind ungefähre Angaben. Die tatsächlich vergebenen ECTS-Punkte ergeben sich aus der tatsächlich geleisteten Arbeit.
- Für dieses Projekt ist kein Motivationsschreiben des Studierenden erforderlich
- Projektart
- experimentell
- Lernziele
-
Die Teilnehmende lernen in diesem Projekt:
- To Understand how behavioral experiments with animals are designed and implemented
- Hands-on experience with experimental setup and troubleshooting
- Basic principles of pollination biology and insect perception
- Practical skills in teamwork, planning, and experimental documentation
- About the gap between theoretical study design and real-world feasibility
- Anmerkungen für Studierende
The project is planned to be in English but you’re going to be supervised by a native German speaker so don´t worry. Take it as an opportunity to practice your English.
If you have questions regarding the project, you can always contact me via:
ryck.leberecht@uni-hohenheim.de