Mission impossible: honey bees adjust time allocation when facing an unsolvable task

Abstract

The degree to which miniature-brained insects make individual adjustments in response to changing conditions remains unclear. Honey bees, Apis mellifera , are an important insect model and have been shown to make individual speed–accuracy trade-offs, but it is currently not known whether they can adjust speed–accuracy strategies to solve tasks in dynamic ecological contexts. Further, it is unclear how they may behave when facing unsolvable or impossible tasks. We therefore tested whether honey bees flexibly allocate time in a colour discrimination task with four levels of task difficulty, and how such differences in time allocation affect accuracy. We found that response time differed between task difficulties, although accuracy did not appear to be influenced by response time. Specifically, bees allocated less time when facing an impossible task than when addressing easier tasks. Our findings suggest that honey bees demonstrate a time allocation strategy depending on context, and that there was little effect of speed on accuracy in both the easy and impossible tasks. • Honey bees spent less time in impossible tasks compared to easier tasks. • Fast choices do not cost accuracy if the task is very easy or impossible to solve. • Honey bees may favour a fast guessing strategy in low-risk foraging contexts. • This contrasts with bumble bee behaviour and may be due to differences in ecology.