Accelerated landings in stingless bees are triggered by visual threshold cues

Area of Science:

• Animal behavior
• Insect flight dynamics
• Sensory biology

Background:

• Flying animals typically decelerate for landing, relying on visual cues.
• The landing strategies of stingless bees (Scaptotrigona depilis) are not well understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the visual control strategy of Scaptotrigona depilis during landing.
• To determine if Scaptotrigona depilis accelerates or decelerates when approaching its narrow hive entrance.

Main Methods:

• Presented artificial targets of varying sizes and locations to bees.
• Observed bee trajectories, acceleration, and leg extension during landing.
• Analyzed the role of visual cues, specifically target angular size, in triggering landing behaviors.

Main Results:

• Scaptotrigona depilis accelerates when landing on artificial targets resembling its hive entrance.
• Accelerated landings are triggered by specific visual cues, particularly target angular size.
• Bees initiated landing and extended legs at a consistent angular size threshold, irrespective of target size.

Conclusions:

• Scaptotrigona depilis employs a stereotyped, visually guided landing strategy involving acceleration.
• This strategy is computationally simple, relying on minimal visual information for efficient landing.
• The findings offer insights into the diverse control mechanisms used by flying animals during approach and touchdown.