Flight performance in night-flying sweat bees suffers at low light levels.
Theobald, Jamie LU ; Coates, Melissa LU ; Wcislo, WT and Warrant, Eric LU
(2007)
In Journal of Experimental Biology
210(22).
p.4034-4042
- Abstract
- 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... (More)
- 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. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/761124
- author
- Theobald, Jamie
LU
; Coates, Melissa
LU
; Wcislo, WT
and Warrant, Eric
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2007
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- flight, nocturnal vision, apposition eye, visual summation, arthropoda, invertebrate, insecta
- in
- Journal of Experimental Biology
- volume
- 210
- issue
- 22
- pages
- 4034 - 4042
- publisher
- The Company of Biologists Ltd
- external identifiers
-
- wos:000251108100020
- scopus:37249086593
- pmid:17981871
- ISSN
- 1477-9145
- DOI
- 10.1242/jeb.003756
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 78654f48-b2c6-4ce7-bb0d-d7035ece4aaf (old id 761124)
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-01 11:43:53
- date last changed
- 2022-01-26 17:23:15
@article{78654f48-b2c6-4ce7-bb0d-d7035ece4aaf,
abstract = {{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.}},
author = {{Theobald, Jamie and Coates, Melissa and Wcislo, WT and Warrant, Eric}},
issn = {{1477-9145}},
keywords = {{flight; nocturnal vision; apposition eye; visual summation; arthropoda; invertebrate; insecta}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{22}},
pages = {{4034--4042}},
publisher = {{The Company of Biologists Ltd}},
series = {{Journal of Experimental Biology}},
title = {{Flight performance in night-flying sweat bees suffers at low light levels.}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1242/jeb.003756}},
doi = {{10.1242/jeb.003756}},
volume = {{210}},
year = {{2007}},
}