Recent studies showed that
nectar odors brought back by honeybee foragers can be learned associatively inside the hive. In the present study, we focused on the learning abilities of bees, which directly interact via trophallaxis with the incoming
nectar foragers: the workers that perform
nectar-receiving tasks inside the hive. Workers that have received food directly from foragers coming back from a feeder offering either unscented or scented
sugar solution [
phenylacetaldehyde (PHE) or
nonanal diluted] were captured from two observational
hives, and their olfactory memories were tested using the proboscis extension response paradigm. Bees that have received scented
solution from incoming foragers showed significantly increased response frequencies for the corresponding
solution odor in comparison with those that have received unscented
solution. No differences in the response frequencies were found between food odors and colonies. The results indicate that first-order receivers learn via trophallaxis the association between the scent and the
sugar solution transferred by incoming foragers. The implications of these results should be considered at three levels: the operational cohesion of bees involved in foraging-related tasks, the information propagation inside the hive related to the floral type exploited, and the putative effect of these memories on future preferences for resources.