ABSTRACT
Honey bees have quite a reputation to live up to: their behavioral ecology has been a focus of attention for centuries, but still they continue to surprise us. Insect behavior was once thought to be entirely stereotyped and the insect nervous system “hard-wired,” but evidence contradicting these views is now overwhelming. Adaptive neural regulation enables honey bees to optimize brain function in the face of changing demands and to modify behavior as a result of experience. There is, nonetheless, an underlying predictability in much of what the honey bee does that provides unique opportunities for exploring the cellular basis of behavioral plasticity using this remarkable insect.
