QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s):
Home     Help     Feedback     Subscriptions     Archive     Search     Table of Contents

First published online October 7, 2005
Journal of Experimental Biology 208, 3895-3905 (2005)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2005
doi: 10.1242/jeb.01818

This Article Summary Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Baird, E. Articles by Cowling, A. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Baird, E. Articles by Cowling, A.

Visual control of flight speed in honeybees

Emily Baird^1,*, Mandyam V. Srinivasan¹, Shaowu Zhang¹ and Ann Cowling²

¹ Centre for Visual Science, Research School of Biological Sciences, Australian National University, PO Box 475, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia
² The Statistical Consulting Unit, Australian National University, PO Box 475, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia

View larger version (23K): [in a new window]   Fig. 1. (A) Experimental apparatus showing (a) plan and (b) vertical section through i–i in a. The field of view of the camera is shown in grey. It spans a central 1.45 m segment of the tunnel. (B) Illustration of tunnel coordinates. Flight speed was calculated as the projection of the flight vector along the x axis.

View larger version (17K): [in a new window]   Fig. 2. Measured velocity profiles of pattern motion. (A) Velocity profiles for the stationary-to-moving condition for the four tested pattern velocities: 8 cm s–1 (black), 23 cm s–1 (dark grey), 27 cm s–1 (mid grey) and 37 cm s–1 (light grey). The motor was switched on at 0 s. There was no difference between the pattern velocity profiles for positive and negative pattern velocities. (B) Velocity profiles for the moving-to-stationary condition for the four tested pattern velocities: 8 cm s–1 (black), 23 cm s–1 (dark grey), 27 cm s–1 (mid grey) and 37 cm s–1 (light grey). The motor was switched off at 1 s. There was no difference between the pattern velocity profiles for positive and negative pattern velocities.

View larger version (16K): [in a new window]   Fig. 3. Experiment 1. Effect of pattern motion on flight speed. The graph shows mean axial flight speed (Vx) when the pattern on the walls was static (0 pattern velocity), moved in the direction of flight (positive pattern velocity values) or against the direction of flight (negative pattern velocity values). The open circles represent Vx values for various pattern speeds. N denotes the number of bees, n denotes the number of flights. The horizontal lines on the error bars denote standard error of the mean; the uncapped bars denote the standard deviation. The dashed line represents a model of the flight speed data for large negative pattern velocities; the slope of this line is slightly smaller than 1. The solid line represents a model of the flight speed data for the positive and negative pattern velocities near zero; the slope of this line is not significantly different from zero. The dotted line represents a model of the flight speed data for large positive pattern velocities; the slope of the regression line was slightly greater than 1. The equations for each regression are shown. Note: only five bees participated in the data shown for negative pattern velocities, due to difficulties in getting them to enter the tunnel under these conditions.

View larger version (21K): [in a new window]   Fig. 4. Experiment 2. Effect of temporal changes of pattern velocity on flight speed. (A) Mean flight speeds when the pattern is stationary in the first phase and moving in the second phase. (B) Mean flight speeds when the pattern is moving in the first phase and stationary in the second. In each case, the open squares and filled circles indicate mean flight speeds during the stationary and moving phases, respectively. The solid line represents a regression model of the data; the equation for this line is shown on each graph. The error bars through the centre of each point indicate the standard error of the mean. The error bars to the left of each data point indicate the standard deviation for the stationary period (open squares); the bars to the right of each data point indicate the standard deviation for the moving period (filled circles). Other details are as in Fig. 3.

View larger version (22K): [in a new window]   Fig. 5. Experiment 3. Effect of spatial changes of pattern velocity on flight speed. (A) Mean flight speeds when the pattern is static in the first half of the tunnel and moving in the second half. (B) Mean flight speeds when the pattern is moving in the first half of the tunnel and static in the second half. In each case, the open squares and filled circles indicate mean flight speeds in the static and moving sections, respectively. The solid line represents a regression model of the data; the equation for this line is shown on each graph. The error bars to the left of each data point indicate the standard deviation for the stationary section (open squares); the bars to the right of each data point indicate the standard deviation for the moving section (filled circles). Other details are as in Fig. 3.

View larger version (19K): [in a new window]   Fig. 6. (A) Experiment 4 – effect of pattern texture on flight speed. Comparison of mean flight speeds when the walls are lined with vertical sinusoidal gratings of spatial period 1.8 cm, 3.6 cm or 7.2 cm. (B) Experiment 5 – effect of pattern contrast on flight speed. Comparison of mean flight speeds when the walls are lined with vertical square-wave gratings of contrast 0%, 10%, 30%, 50%, 70% or 100%. (C) Experiment 6 – comparison of mean flight speeds when the walls are lined with vertical stripes (producing strong optic flow cues) or axial stripes (producing very weak optic flow cues). Other details are as in Fig. 3.