概述了动物行为学家对充满魅力的蜜蜂觅食行为研究的最新进展，包括蕈形体对蜜蜂觅食行为的影响，基因和mRNA与蜜蜂觅食行为的关系，以及保幼激素和章鱼胺等神经激素与觅食行为的关系等。这些新技术新方法的应用大大增强了人们对蜜蜂觅食行为理解的深度和广度，开辟了蜜蜂觅食行为研究的新前景。

Mushroom bodies play a central role in spatial navigation and foraging behavior in bees. The researchers found that the mushroom bodies of foragers were 14.8 percent larger than those of the other groups (one-day bees and nurses). This is a particularly striking finding because the relative volume of other nerve clusters in the honeybee brains remained relatively unchanged. Over the last few years, with the explosion of molecular genetic technology, a much more detailed picture of genes, mRNA abundance in the brain, and foraging in bees were emerged. In a largescale study of 5 500 genes, Charles found that changes in mRNA levels associated with 39 percent of these genes were involved in the transition from hive work to foraging behavior in bees. Octopamine (a neurohormone) was linked to the increased foraging activity in bees. It showed that octopamine modulateed learning and memory in bees, and also affected their visual, olfactory, and gustatory sense. Foraging bees have more octopamine in their brains than nurse bees, and this hormone reaches its highest concentration when a bee switches from nest-bound activities to foraging activities.