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How Do Bees Measure Distance of Food Source from the Hive?
Thanks to their dance, which represents a SYMBOLIC LANGUAGE OF HONEY BEES, bees can inform other member of their hive about the location of newly found food source. But, how do bees measure distance which they convey in such a way? Earlier it was thought that they do it by measuring energy consumed during flight. However, doubt appeared when it was notices that bee’s estimation of distance can be manipulated by applying signs between the hive and the food source, proving that bees count signs which they encounter along the way. In an elegant experiment, scientists researched the dance language of bees to determine their subjective estimation of flight.
They place a food source for the BEES at 70 meters from the hive and recorded information about the distance which scouts upon return conveyed through dance. Then the hung the feeder to the balloon and slowly raised it to the height of 90 m-so that the distance between the hive and food source increased to 114m. In accordance with that, scouts should have signalized a greater distance by flapping their wings longer. However, they registered 50 percent shorter distance (shown by their dance upon returning to the hive)! This clearly showed that bee’s perception of distance is not founded on consumed energy, since the longer flight which required more energy the bees showed in her dance as shorter distance.
So, what in essence is guiding a bee’s odometer? Because the environment “moves” slowly or bees that move at higher altitudes, scientists determined that scouts process the speed at which the visual contours move in their eyes (optical flow), and connect that with the travel time. To confirm this assumption, scientist experimented with exaggerating the experience of traveled path for bees by training them to pass through a narrow tunnel. These bees estimated the traveled path many times over, informing other bees at the hive that they traveled 195m , while realistically they flew 6m. Watching such dances confuses the other bees that the dance bees in search for food traveled distant locations that they never actually saw.
The quality of information about the traveled path will depend, of course, on the sensitivity of the eyes. Bee’s eyes contain three types of receptors for colors, with maximal sensitivity for ultraviolet, blue and green specters of light. Their extraordinary perception of colors if important for identification of flowers, but do they really use it for measuring speed at which the images if the areas are presented to them during flight? Surprisingly, but the answer is no-bee’s odometer is completely color blind. Scientists have determined that for measuring speed at which the pictures move (during flight) bees only use a signal from their green receptors. Therefore, frequency of contrasts in a natural surrounding largely dependes on the bee’s subjective experience of flight duration.
With so many external variables that influence the distance estimation, it seems as the odometer of a honey bee is not really reliable in a natural surrounding.