Ontogeny of orientation flight in the honeybee revealed by harmonic radar

A - Papers appearing in refereed journals

Capaldi, E. A., Smith, A. D., Osborne, J. L., Fahrbach, S. E., Farris, S. M., Reynolds, D. R., Edwards, A. S., Martin, A., Robinson, G. E., Poppy, G. M. and Riley, J. R. 2000. Ontogeny of orientation flight in the honeybee revealed by harmonic radar. Nature. 403 (6769), pp. 537-540. https://doi.org/10.1038/35000564

AuthorsCapaldi, E. A., Smith, A. D., Osborne, J. L., Fahrbach, S. E., Farris, S. M., Reynolds, D. R., Edwards, A. S., Martin, A., Robinson, G. E., Poppy, G. M. and Riley, J. R.
Abstract

Cognitive ethology focuses on the study of animals under natural conditions to reveal ecologically adapted modes of learning. But biologists can more easily study what an animal learns than how it learns. For example, honeybees take repeated ‘orientation’ flights before becoming foragers at about three weeks of age1. These flights are a prerequisite for successful homing.2 Little is known2,3 about these flights because orienting bees rapidly fly out of the range of human observation. Using harmonic radar, we show for the first time a striking ontogeny to honeybee orientation flights. With increased experience, bees hold trip duration constant but fly faster, so later trips cover a larger area than earlier trips. In addition, each flight is typically restricted to a narrow sector around the hive. Orientation flights provide honeybees with repeated opportunities to view the hive and landscape features from different viewpoints, suggesting that bees learn the local landscape in a progressive fashion. We also show that these changes in orientation flight are related to the number of previous flights taken instead of chronological age, suggesting a learning process adapted to changes in weather conditions, flower availability and the needs of bee colonies. 

KeywordsRRES175; 175_Entomology
Year of Publication2000
JournalNature
Journal citation403 (6769), pp. 537-540
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1038/35000564
Open accessPublished as non-open access
Funder project or code303
436
Project: 044181
Project: 044179
Publication dates
Online03 Feb 2000
Publication process dates
Accepted10 Nov 1999
ISSN14764687
PublisherSpringer Nature
Copyright licensePublisher copyright

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