Faculty Advisor
Hannaford, Sue
Area of Study
Science and Mathematics
Publication Date
Summer 2011
Abstract
The proboscis extension reflex conditioning assay was employed to condition bees to discriminate between urine samples. Each trial tested the bee’s ability to discriminate between male and female mouse urine. Seventeen bees were tested using pooled mouse urine while the other 17 were tested using single urine samples. Bees tested on single samples discriminated the positive odor 41% of the time on average for the 4th and 5th trial, while bees tested using pooled samples discriminated the positive odor 62.5% of the time on average for the 4th and 5th trial. During the probe trials, neither the pooled urine sample tested bees nor the single sample urine tested bees discriminated between the novel positive odors. The fact that bees cannot discriminate between novel odors suggests that clinical testing to discriminate disease is unlikely.
Recommended Citation
Van Buren, Preston, "Beesearch: smellin’ urine and discriminatin’sex" (2011). Summer Research. 106.
https://soundideas.pugetsound.edu/summer_research/106
Rights
Publisher
University of Puget Sound
Poster in MS Powerpoint format
preston_summer_2011_poster.ppt (1017 kB)
Summer Research 2011 reflection