Visual navigation in honey bees (Apis mellifera): A neuroethological approach

Honey bees forage in vast terrains, and visual navigation is crucial for their high foraging efficiency. Bees orient themselves using the position of the sun, polarization patterns of the sky, and landmark information from distant and nearby objects. They calculate their travel distance by measuring the total optic flow perceived during the foraging trip. This information is used to infer where the individual is at any given moment during the trip, to travel back to the hive, and to advertise rewarding floral sources to nestmates by performing the waggle dance. We aim to characterize the cues that are important in visual navigation of honey bees by recording foragers in natural flower patches. The effects of patch profitability and different visual cues on flight paths are tested on natural food sources to infer foraging strategies of honey bees. In addition, we will use foraging tunnels with rewarding feeders to expose bees to visual input with specific contrasts, colors and patterns. By measuring where they search for displaced feeders, and by monitoring the waggle dances performed by foragers returning from specific paths, we plan to identify the important visual features used by honey bees to recognize profitable food sources visited previously and the paths leading to or from them. Preliminary results from these experiments will be presented.