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Related Experiment Videos

The automatic pilot of honeybees.

J R Riley1, U Greggers, A D Smith

  • 1Plant and Invertebrate Ecology Division, Rothamsted Research, Harpenden, Hertfordshire AL5 2JQ, UK. joe@radarent.freeserve.co.uk

Proceedings. Biological Sciences
|December 12, 2003
PubMed
Summary

Honeybees displaced from a feeding station still fly their original "goal-vector" route home. They use optic flow and a sun compass, largely ignoring landscape cues, to navigate accurately.

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Area of Science:

  • Animal behavior
  • Insect navigation
  • Sensory ecology

Background:

  • Honeybees navigate complex environments using various cues.
  • Understanding bee navigation is crucial for pollination and ecological studies.
  • Previous research focused on navigation from the hive, not from established feeding sites.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To visualize and analyze the complete flight paths of honeybees after displacement.
  • To determine the primary navigation methods bees use during homing flights from feeding stations.
  • To investigate the role of landscape cues versus optic flow and sun compass in bee navigation.

Main Methods:

  • Employing scanning harmonic radar to track individual honeybee flight trajectories.
  • Displacing bees from a known feeding station to an unfamiliar location.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Observing and recording flight behavior, including route adherence and environmental compensation.

    • Main Results:

    • Bees initiated and maintained their learned
    • goal-vector
    • flight path even after artificial displacement.
    • Most bees accurately compensated for lateral wind drift during these flights.
    • Bees relied on optic flow and their sun compass, initially disregarding landscape cues.

    Conclusions:

    • Honeybee homing flights are strongly pre-programmed based on learned vectors.
    • Navigation relies on integrated sensory information, prioritizing optic flow and sun compass over landscape cues.
    • This study provides new insights into the flexibility and robustness of insect navigation systems.