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First published online November 2, 2007
Journal of Experimental Biology 210, 4034-4042 (2007)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2007
doi: 10.1242/jeb.003756

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Flight performance in night-flying sweat bees suffers at low light levels

Jamie Carroll Theobald^1,*, Melissa M. Coates¹, William T. Wcislo² and Eric J. Warrant¹

¹ Department of Cell and Organism Biology, Helgonavägen 3, Lund University, S-223 62, Lund, Sweden
² Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Box 0843-03092, Balboa, Ancon, Republic of Panama

^* Author for correspondence at present address: University of California, Department of Physiological Science, 621 Charles E. Young Dr. South, Box 951606, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1606, USA (e-mail: jamiet{at}physci.ucla.edu)

Accepted 5 September 2007

The sweat bee Megalopta (Hymenoptera: Halictidae), unlike most bees, flies in extremely dim light. And although nocturnal insects are often equipped with superposition eyes, which greatly enhance light capture, Megalopta performs visually guided flight with apposition eyes. We examined how light limits Megalopta's flight behavior by measuring flight times and corresponding light levels and comparing them with flight trajectories upon return to the nest. We found the average time to land increased in dim light, an effect due not to slow approaches, but to circuitous approaches. Some landings, however, were quite fast even in the dark. To explain this, we examined the flight trajectories and found that in dim light, landings became increasingly error prone and erratic, consistent with repeated landing attempts. These data agree well with the premise that Megalopta uses visual summation, sacrificing acuity in order to see and fly at the very dimmest light intensities that its visual system allows.

Key words: nocturnal vision, flight, apposition eye, visual summation, invertebrate, arthropoda, insecta

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Related articles in JEB:

LOW LIGHT, BAD FLIGHT

Laura Blackburn
JEB 2007 210: iii. [Full Text]  

This article has been cited by other articles:

				E. J. Warrant Seeing in the dark: vision and visual behaviour in nocturnal bees and wasps J. Exp. Biol., June 1, 2008; 211(11): 1737 - 1746. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				L. Blackburn LOW LIGHT, BAD FLIGHT J. Exp. Biol., November 15, 2007; 210(22): iii - iii. [Full Text] [PDF]