Learning to avoid collisions: Bees use cues perceived before and after a collision to prevent negative consequences during navigation in cluttered areas

Bumblebees navigate complex environments where collisions with obstacles can impair flight performance. While bees possess innate collision avoidance reflexes, they may benefit from learning to identify and avoid high-risk collision areas using environmental cues. However, the temporal dynamics of how bees form associations between visual cues and collision experiences remain unclear. We investigated whether bumblebees associate visual cues perceived before or after collision events with a movement direction. Individual foragers were trained to navigate through a flight tunnel containing a transparent barrier and an LED panel that switched colours immediately after the bee’s first collision. Following training, we tested bees’ responses to each colour cue without the barrier. Bees demonstrated significant preferences for avoiding the previously blocked side when presented with either the pre-collision colour (81% correct responses) or post-collision colour (71% correct responses), while showing no preference when no colour cue was presented. Individual analysis revealed that 61% of bees responded to both cue types, while others showed selective responses to specific temporal windows. These results demonstrate that bees can form associations with visual cues encountered in different time windows relative to negative experiences, revealing temporal flexibility in associative learning that contributes to successful navigation in cluttered environments.