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The use of landmarks and panoramic context in the performance of local vectors by navigating honeybees

Matthew Collett¹, Duane Harland² and Thomas S. Collett^2,*

¹ Department of Zoology, State University of Michigan, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA and
² School of Biological Sciences, University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9QG, UK

View larger version (25K): [in a new window]   Fig. 1. Methodology. (A) Channel for boundary landmark training (BLT) viewed obliquely and from above showing texture changes on the wall and the position of the feeder box. (B) Channel for isolated landmark training (ILT) viewed obliquely and from above showing texture changes on the wall, the baffle and the position of the feeder box. (C) The bees’ path through the channel, illustrating individual turns and the path segment (solid line) that each test flight contributes to the search distribution.

View larger version (34K): [in a new window]   Fig. 2. Search distributions when the relationship between the landmarks is as in training. (A) Boundary landmark training (BLT) with landmarks in the training configuration. (B) Isolated landmark training (ILT) with landmarks in the training configuration. (C) BLT with landmarks shifted 1 m away from the entrance. (D) ILT with landmarks shifted 2 m away from the entrance. Left: distribution of first turns (filled columns) and second turns (open columns) above a sketch showing the arrangement of landmarks on the walls of the channel. Bin size is 20 cm. Filled and open arrowheads show the mean position of the first and second turns respectively. Right: search distribution as defined by Srinivasan et al. (1997) and described in the Materials and methods section. The dashed vertical line in this and subsequent figures shows the position, relative to the closest boundary landmark, of the feeder in the training configuration. The pattern beneath each graph shows the succession of landmarks and panoramic contexts from the entrance at the left. The section of lighter pattern at the right shows the range of the positions of the channel end.

View larger version (20K): [in a new window]   Fig. 3. Search distribution when the final landmark is moved 1 m away from the channel entrance. (A) Boundary landmark training (BLT). (B) Isolated landmark training (ILT). Data presented as in Fig. 2.

View larger version (37K): [in a new window]   Fig. 4. Searching with the final landmark removed. (A,B) Boundary landmark training (BLT). (A) Search distributions plotted relative to the end of the channel. The lighter portion shows the range of positions of the entrance and first landmark relative to the channel end. (B) Search distributions plotted (as elsewhere) relative to the entrance of the channel (C) Isolated landmark training (ILT). (D) ILT with an additional 2 m of random pattern before the first landmark. For further details, see Fig. 2.

View larger version (31K): [in a new window]   Fig. 5. Summary of experimental results for test conditions that included the final panoramic context. The open diamond shows the median value of the midpoints of turns 1 and 2. Distances are relative to the trained length through the final panoramic context. Bars show the first quartile of midpoints either side of the median. The lettering on the right indicates the figure in which the results are presented. The dashed vertical line shows the position, relative to the closest boundary landmark, of the feeder in the training configuration.