DOI: 10.1126/science.287.5454.851. Honeybee Navigation: Nature and Calibration of the "Odometer"

Honeybee Navigation: Nature and Calibration of the "Odometer"

10.1126/science.287.5454.851

Crossref journal-article

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Science (221)

Abstract

There are two theories about how honeybees estimate the distance to food sources. One theory proposes that distance flown is estimated in terms of energy consumption . The other suggests that the cue is visual, and is derived from the extent to which the image of the world has moved on the eye during the trip. Here the two theories are tested by observing dances of bees that have flown through a short, narrow tunnel to collect a food reward. The results show that the honeybee's “odometer” is visually driven. They also provide a calibration of the dance and the odometer in visual terms.

Bibliography

Srinivasan, M. V., Zhang, S., Altwein, M., & Tautz, J. (2000). Honeybee Navigation: Nature and Calibration of the âOdometer.â Science, 287(5454), 851â853.

Authors 4

Mandyan V. Srinivasan (first)
Shaowu Zhang (additional)
Monika Altwein (additional)
Jürgen Tautz (additional)

References 20 Referenced 300

K. von Frisch The Dance Language and Orientation of Bees (Harvard Univ. Press Cambridge MA 1993). (10.4159/harvard.9780674418776)
10.1007/BF00338625
10.1007/BF01167870
10.1242/jeb.199.1.155
10.1242/jeb.199.1.237
10.1242/jeb.200.19.2513
The texture was a random black-and-white Julesz pattern of pixel size 1 cm by 1 cm.
10.1007/BF00340572
The feeder's position in the tunnel was altered by moving it in small steps over a period of 2 hours. After reaching the final position a further period of 2 hours was allowed before dances were filmed.
The stripes were black and white and had a period of 8 cm.
The distances were determined using an accurate digital map of the university campus (see map at Science Online www.sciencemag.org/feature/data/1046508.shl). Only one distance was tested at any given time.
To prevent undesirable intercolony interactions we ran the outdoor flight experiments with the two hives in sequence not concurrently. No colony-specific or route-specific differences were apparent.
10.1038/382032a0
Waggle dances were video-filmed at 25 frames per second and were later played back for frame-by-frame analysis. The duration of each waggle phase was measured in terms of the number of frames over which it occurred.
K. von Frisch (1) pp. 100–101.
10.1017/S095252380000136X
Further work is necessary to ascertain the precise conditions under which image motion for odometry is assessed by the ventral [see (3)] or lateral [see (6)] fields of view.
10.1007/BF00340571
10.1006/anbe.1994.1379
We thank E. Ball for advice H. Zhu for invaluable assistance with the experiments H. Waldie for constructing the hives and R. Mark for providing space for this work. Supported partly by grants RG 84/97 from the Human Frontier Science Program and N00014-99-1-0506 from the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Office of Naval Research (M.V.S.) and Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft grant Ta 82/7-2 (J.T.).

Dates

Type	When
Created	23 years, 1 month ago (July 27, 2002, 5:40 a.m.)
Deposited	1 year, 7 months ago (Jan. 13, 2024, 4:57 a.m.)
Indexed	1 week, 1 day ago (Aug. 19, 2025, 6:39 a.m.)
Issued	25 years, 6 months ago (Feb. 4, 2000)
Published	25 years, 6 months ago (Feb. 4, 2000)
Published Print	25 years, 6 months ago (Feb. 4, 2000)

Funders 0

None

BibTeX

@article{Srinivasan_2000, title={Honeybee Navigation: Nature and Calibration of the “Odometer”}, volume={287}, ISSN={1095-9203}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.287.5454.851}, DOI={10.1126/science.287.5454.851}, number={5454}, journal={Science}, publisher={American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)}, author={Srinivasan, Mandyan V. and Zhang, Shaowu and Altwein, Monika and Tautz, Jürgen}, year={2000}, month=feb, pages={851–853} }

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