Vector integration and novel shortcutting in honey

Authors: Randolf Menzel Konstantin Lehmann Gisela Manz Jacqueline Fuchs Miriam Koblofsky Uwe Greggers

Publish Date: 2012/03/06

Volume: 43, Issue: 3, Pages: 229-243

PDF Link

Abstract

Honeybees that had been trained to visit two feeders simultaneously were released at five sites located further away from the training area Harmonic radar tracking was used to record the complete homing flights The bees performed multiple straight flight components SFCs between curved search flights SFCs reflect vector directions between the two feeding sites and the respective vectors between the feeding sites and the hive Direct flights back to the hive were also observed The latter belong to a homing strategy that requires the bee to identify its location relative to the hive We interpret these two navigation strategies as reflecting the application of a directional component of novel shortcut flights Taken together our findings indicate that bees apply several different directional components of vectors which are either experienced directly during flight or derived from longdistance vector integration or mappingThe honeybees used in this study were kindly supplied by Mr Nohr The harmonic radar system was constructed and built by Prof Haas and Dipl Ing Fischer at the Fachhochschule Emden We are also grateful to Sabine Wintergerst for her help with the data analysis This study is supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft grant Me 365/401 to R Menzel

Keywords: