Special reading - Feeding behaviour - Honeybee navigation : Nature and calibration of the "the Odometer" in honeybees

Question 1

what were the aims?

Answer 1

to prove which theory (visual or energy) bees use to determine distance

Question 2

what are the two hypotheses?

Answer 2

1) distance flown is estimated in terms of energy consumption
2) cue is visual and is derived from the extent to which the image of the world has moved on the eye during the trip

Question 3

what are the methods?

Answer 3

Experiment 1 -part 1- tunnel positioned with entrance 35m from hive its walled lined with a random texture - feeder at entrance to tunnel (performed primarily round dances) part 2 - the feeder was placed 6m into random texture tunnel (primarily waggle)
Experiment 2- to test the effect of the tunnels random texture the pattern was then replaced with a parallel line (providing negligible image motion) - the bees recruited to this feeder performed primarily round dances (same distance)
Experiment 3 - random textures were used again and the entrance to the tunnel was placed 6m from the hive and feeder was placed 6m into the tunnel - bees performed mainly waggle dances

Question 4

what were the results?

Answer 4

• concluded distance flown is inferred on a visual basis - primarily being extent of image motion on the eye
• this proved with the line parallel to the bees flight in which the bee thought it had flown significantly less distance
  when compared to random pattern tunnel
• speed of flight has no effect

Question 5

what do the results mean in context?

Answer 5

• this proves the image motion hypothesis
• indicates the fragility of the bees waggle dance - both light and environmental objects have great effect on their ability to identify distance and direction
• another example of an interaction between behaviour and environment