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Honeybee navigation: following routes using polarized-light cues

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Author

  • P. Kraft
  • C. Evangelista
  • Marie Dacke
  • T. Labhart
  • M. V. Srinivasan

Summary, in English

While it is generally accepted that honeybees (Apis mellifera) are capable of using the pattern of polarized light in the sky to navigate to a food source, there is little or no direct behavioural evidence that they actually do so. We have examined whether bees can be trained to find their way through a maze composed of four interconnected tunnels, by using directional information provided by polarized light illumination from the ceilings of the tunnels. The results show that bees can learn this task, thus demonstrating directly, and for the first time, that bees are indeed capable of using the polarized-light information in the sky as a compass to steer their way to a food source.

Publishing year

2011

Language

English

Pages

703-708

Publication/Series

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

Volume

366

Issue

1565

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Royal Society Publishing

Topic

  • Zoology

Keywords

  • honeybee
  • navigation
  • polarization vision
  • orientation

Status

Published

Research group

  • Lund Vision Group

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1471-2970