Data from: A pollen fatty acid enhances learning and survival in bumblebees

Learning associations between food-related stimuli and nutrients allows
foragers to collect resources efficiently. In turn, the nutrients foragers
consume can themselves affect learning performance, through innate
preferences for pre-ingestive stimuli, as well as post-ingestive
reinforcement. Bees are insect models of learning and memory, yet the vast
majority of this research concerns nectar (carbohydrate) rather than
pollen (protein/lipid) rewards, despite the fact that many bees collect
both simultaneously. We asked how one component of pollen surface
chemistry, a free fatty acid (oleic acid), affected bees’ performance in a
nectar-learning task. We found that ingestion of oleic acid enhanced
visual learning, likely through positive post-ingestive reinforcement.
This was supported by our finding that although bees did not prefer to
consume the oleic acid solution, its ingestion both decreased motor
activity and increased survival. These results are a step towards
understanding how nutritionally complex floral rewards may affect
cognitive processes that underlie pollination mutualisms.