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Honeybee navigation: properties of the visually driven `odometer'

Aung Si, Mandyam V. Srinivasan^* and Shaowu Zhang

Centre for Visual Science, Research School of Biological Sciences, Australian National University, PO Box 475, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia

View larger version (14K): [in a new window]   Fig. 1. The effect of varying tunnel length on the mean waggle duration (black bars) and the mean pure waggle duration (white bars) of bees returning to the hive after being rewarded inside the tunnel. Values are means ± S.D. for each experimental condition; in this and all figures, B denotes the number of bees, N the number of dances analysed, and n the total number of loops (waggle + non-waggle) analysed. The walls and floor of the tunnel (length 2, 4, 6 or 8 m) were lined with a checkerboard pattern in all but two cases, where axial stripes were used instead. The table on the right of the histogram shows the results of a pair-wise Fisher's Least Significant Difference Test for differences in the values of mean waggle duration; *P<0.05; **P<0.01; NS, no significant difference (P>0.05). Ax, axial; Ch, checkerboard.

View larger version (12K): [in a new window]   Fig. 2. The effect of varying tunnel length on the proportion of waggle loops. Other details as in Fig. 1.

View larger version (17K): [in a new window]   Fig. 3. The contribution of the lateral and ventral visual fields to odometry. Variation in mean waggle duration (black bars) and the mean pure waggle duration (white bars) of bees after flying in a tunnel with different surfaces providing optic flow (random Julesz pattern) or no optic flow (axial stripes) (indicated below). Controls, behaviour after outdoor flight to the tunnel entrance; see text for details. Other details as in Fig. 1.

View larger version (16K): [in a new window]   Fig. 4. The contribution of the lateral and ventral visual fields to odometry. The histogram shows the variation of the proportion of waggle loops. Other details as in Fig. 3.

View larger version (19K): [in a new window]   Fig. 5. The effect of contrast on mean waggle duration (black bars) and the mean pure waggle duration (white bars). The walls and floor of the tunnel were lined with square-wave gratings of various % contrasts, as shown. A 92% contrast checkerboard (Ch) pattern was used as a control to provide a baseline value. Other details as in Fig. 1.

View larger version (18K): [in a new window]   Fig. 6. The effect of contrast on the proportion of waggle loops. Other details as in Fig. 5.

View larger version (19K): [in a new window]   Fig. 7. The effect of spatial period on mean waggle duration (black bars) and the mean pure waggle duration (white bars). The walls and floor of the tunnel were lined with sinusoidal gratings of spatial periods 1.8 cm, 3.6 cm and 7.2 cm, as shown. A 92% contrast checkerboard pattern (Control 1) and axial stripes (Control 2) were used as controls. Other details as in Fig. 1.

View larger version (17K): [in a new window]   Fig. 8. The effect of spatial period on the proportion of waggle loops. Other details as in Fig. 7.