How dim is dim? Precision of the celestial compass in moonlight and sunlight.
Dacke, Marie LU ; Byrne, M J ; Baird, Emily LU ; Scholtz, C H and Warrant, Eric LU
(2011)
In Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
366(1565).
p.697-702
- Abstract
- Prominent in the sky, but not visible to humans, is a pattern of polarized skylight formed around both the Sun and the Moon. Dung beetles are, at present, the only animal group known to use the much dimmer polarization pattern formed around the Moon as a compass cue for maintaining travel direction. However, the Moon is not visible every night and the intensity of the celestial polarization pattern gradually declines as the Moon wanes. Therefore, for nocturnal orientation on all moonlit nights, the absolute sensitivity of the dung beetle's polarization detector may limit the precision of this behaviour. To test this, we studied the straight-line foraging behaviour of the nocturnal ball-rolling dung beetle Scarabaeus satyrus to establish... (More)
- Prominent in the sky, but not visible to humans, is a pattern of polarized skylight formed around both the Sun and the Moon. Dung beetles are, at present, the only animal group known to use the much dimmer polarization pattern formed around the Moon as a compass cue for maintaining travel direction. However, the Moon is not visible every night and the intensity of the celestial polarization pattern gradually declines as the Moon wanes. Therefore, for nocturnal orientation on all moonlit nights, the absolute sensitivity of the dung beetle's polarization detector may limit the precision of this behaviour. To test this, we studied the straight-line foraging behaviour of the nocturnal ball-rolling dung beetle Scarabaeus satyrus to establish when the Moon is too dim-and the polarization pattern too weak-to provide a reliable cue for orientation. Our results show that celestial orientation is as accurate during crescent Moon as it is during full Moon. Moreover, this orientation accuracy is equal to that measured for diurnal species that orient under the 100 million times brighter polarization pattern formed around the Sun. This indicates that, in nocturnal species, the sensitivity of the optical polarization compass can be greatly increased without any loss of precision. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/1832431
- author
- Dacke, Marie
LU
; Byrne, M J
; Baird, Emily
LU
; Scholtz, C H
and Warrant, Eric
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2011
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- orientation, polarized light, dung beetle, vision, navigation
- in
- Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
- volume
- 366
- issue
- 1565
- pages
- 697 - 702
- publisher
- Royal Society Publishing
- external identifiers
-
- wos:000286721400012
- scopus:79952358553
- pmid:21282173
- ISSN
- 1471-2970
- DOI
- 10.1098/rstb.2010.0191
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 7230da47-3689-45da-8a78-4ab4f65f0881 (old id 1832431)
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-01 13:15:48
- date last changed
- 2022-03-21 17:34:00
@article{7230da47-3689-45da-8a78-4ab4f65f0881,
abstract = {{Prominent in the sky, but not visible to humans, is a pattern of polarized skylight formed around both the Sun and the Moon. Dung beetles are, at present, the only animal group known to use the much dimmer polarization pattern formed around the Moon as a compass cue for maintaining travel direction. However, the Moon is not visible every night and the intensity of the celestial polarization pattern gradually declines as the Moon wanes. Therefore, for nocturnal orientation on all moonlit nights, the absolute sensitivity of the dung beetle's polarization detector may limit the precision of this behaviour. To test this, we studied the straight-line foraging behaviour of the nocturnal ball-rolling dung beetle Scarabaeus satyrus to establish when the Moon is too dim-and the polarization pattern too weak-to provide a reliable cue for orientation. Our results show that celestial orientation is as accurate during crescent Moon as it is during full Moon. Moreover, this orientation accuracy is equal to that measured for diurnal species that orient under the 100 million times brighter polarization pattern formed around the Sun. This indicates that, in nocturnal species, the sensitivity of the optical polarization compass can be greatly increased without any loss of precision.}},
author = {{Dacke, Marie and Byrne, M J and Baird, Emily and Scholtz, C H and Warrant, Eric}},
issn = {{1471-2970}},
keywords = {{orientation; polarized light; dung beetle; vision; navigation}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{1565}},
pages = {{697--702}},
publisher = {{Royal Society Publishing}},
series = {{Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences}},
title = {{How dim is dim? Precision of the celestial compass in moonlight and sunlight.}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2010.0191}},
doi = {{10.1098/rstb.2010.0191}},
volume = {{366}},
year = {{2011}},
}