Honeybees use optic flow to measure the distance of a food source

Esch, Harald; Burns, John E.

doi:10.1007/bf01167870

Cited by 101 publications

(75 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…The length of the single waggle-runs increases with the distance flown to reach the source, and their angles relative to gravity correlate with the direction of the foraging flights relative to the sun's azimuth in the field and sun-linked patterns of polarized skylight. Thus, by encoding the visually measured distance (Esch and Burns, 1995;Srinivasan et al, 2000a;Tautz et al, 2004) and the direction toward the goal, the waggle dance allows colony members to share information about the distance and direction toward a desirable goal (von Frisch, 1967;Seeley, 1995;Dyer, 2002). Although Karl von Frisch used the term ''dance language,' ' Premack and Premack (1983) correctly stated that the honeybee dances should not be called a language, based on the argument that there is no evidence that the bees can judge whether their dances conform to anything in their surroundings.…”

Section: Communicationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cognition in Invertebrates

Menzel

Brembs

Giurfa

2007

Evolution of Nervous Systems

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Section: Communicationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cognition in Invertebrates

Menzel

Brembs

Giurfa

2007

Evolution of Nervous Systems

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“…The amount of optic flow generated by the walls of the flight tunnels is proportional to the distance between the tunnel walls and the flying bee: as a consequence of this, a bee flying in a narrow tunnel experiences greater optic flow than a bee flying the same distance in a wider tunnel (Esch & Burns 1995;Srinivasan et al 2000). The 'long tunnel' (LT) in our study was twice as long and four times as wide as the 'short tunnel' (ST).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 72%

Optic flow informs distance but not profitability for honeybees

Shafir

Barron

2009

Proc. R. Soc. B.

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How do flying insects monitor foraging efficiency? Honeybees (Apis mellifera) use optic flow information as an odometer to estimate distance travelled, but here we tested whether optic flow informs estimation of foraging costs also. Bees were trained to feeders in flight tunnels such that bees experienced the greatest optic flow en route to the feeder closest to the hive. Analyses of dance communication showed that, as expected, bees indicated the close feeder as being further, but they also indicated this feeder as the more profitable, and preferentially visited this feeder when given a choice. We show that honeybee estimates of foraging cost are not reliant on optic flow information. Rather, bees can assess distance and profitability independently and signal these aspects as separate elements of their dances. The optic flow signal is sensitive to the nature of the environment travelled by the bee, and is therefore not a good index of flight energetic costs, but it provides a good indication of distance travelled for purpose of navigation and communication, as long as the dancer and recruit travel similar routes. This study suggests an adaptive dual processing system in honeybees for communicating and navigating distance flown and for evaluating its energetic costs.

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“…Stingless bees live in an environment where food sources are scattered throughout the forest canopy, so a finely tuned vertical odometer may be important for navigation to resources. Bees lack the optical structures necessary for depth perception (Esch and Burns, 1995), but both honey bees (Esch and Burns, 1995) and M. panamica (Nieh and Roubik, 1995) are capable of accurately gauging the heights of food resources. We suggest that foragers are able to exploit the rich optic flow cues from the surrounding forest to simultaneously track their total displacement from the nest and their degree of ascent into the canopy.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A stingless bee can use visual odometry to estimate both height and distance

Eckles

Roubik

Nieh

2012

Journal of Experimental Biology

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SUMMARYBees move and forage within three dimensions and rely heavily on vision for navigation. The use of vision-based odometry has been studied extensively in horizontal distance measurement, but not vertical distance measurement. The honey bee Apis mellifera and the stingless bee Melipona seminigra measure distance visually using optic flow-movement of images as they pass across the retina. The honey bees gauge height using image motion in the ventral visual field. The stingless bees forage at different tropical forest canopy levels, ranging up to 40m at our site. Thus, estimating height would be advantageous. We provide the first evidence that the stingless bee Melipona panamica utilizes optic flow information to gauge not only distance traveled but also height above ground, by processing information primarily from the lateral visual field. After training bees to forage at a set height in a vertical tunnel lined with black and white stripes, we observed foragers that explored a new tunnel with no feeder. In a new tunnel, bees searched at the same height they were trained to. In a narrower tunnel, bees experienced more image motion and significantly lowered their search height. In a wider tunnel, bees experienced less image motion and searched at significantly greater heights. In a tunnel without optic cues, bees were disoriented and searched at random heights. A horizontal tunnel testing these variables similarly affected foraging, but bees exhibited less precision (greater variance in search positions). Accurately gauging flight height above ground may be crucial for this species and others that compete for resources located at heights ranging from ground level to the high tropical forest canopies.

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Honeybees use optic flow to measure the distance of a food source

Cited by 101 publications

References 6 publications

Cognition in Invertebrates

Cognition in Invertebrates

Optic flow informs distance but not profitability for honeybees

A stingless bee can use visual odometry to estimate both height and distance

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