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Visual summation in night-flying sweat bees: A theoretical study

Theobald, Jamie LU ; Greiner, Birgit LU ; Weislo, WT and Warrant, Eric LU orcid (2006) In Vision Research 46(14). p.2298-2309
Abstract
Bees are predominantly diurnal; only a few groups fly at night. An evolutionary limitation that bees must overcome to inhabit dim environments is their eye type: bees possess apposition compound eyes, which are poorly suited to vision in dim light. Here, we theoretically examine how nocturnal bees Megalopta genalis fly at light levels usually reserved for insects bearing more sensitive superposition eyes. We find that neural summation should greatly increase M. genalis's visual reliability. Predicted spatial summation closely matches the morphology of laminal neurons believed to mediate such summation. Improved reliability costs acuity, but dark adapted bees already suffer optical blurring, and summation further degrades vision only... (More)
Bees are predominantly diurnal; only a few groups fly at night. An evolutionary limitation that bees must overcome to inhabit dim environments is their eye type: bees possess apposition compound eyes, which are poorly suited to vision in dim light. Here, we theoretically examine how nocturnal bees Megalopta genalis fly at light levels usually reserved for insects bearing more sensitive superposition eyes. We find that neural summation should greatly increase M. genalis's visual reliability. Predicted spatial summation closely matches the morphology of laminal neurons believed to mediate such summation. Improved reliability costs acuity, but dark adapted bees already suffer optical blurring, and summation further degrades vision only slightly. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. (Less)
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author
; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
halictid bees, neural summation, nocturnal vision, noise, apposition compound eyes
in
Vision Research
volume
46
issue
14
pages
2298 - 2309
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • wos:000238702900012
  • pmid:16488460
  • scopus:33645026190
ISSN
1878-5646
DOI
10.1016/j.visres.2006.01.002
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
9fc9bba9-d6a5-4ebb-ba7a-ddca6e9ad530 (old id 404300)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 12:13:19
date last changed
2022-04-05 19:17:15
@article{9fc9bba9-d6a5-4ebb-ba7a-ddca6e9ad530,
  abstract     = {{Bees are predominantly diurnal; only a few groups fly at night. An evolutionary limitation that bees must overcome to inhabit dim environments is their eye type: bees possess apposition compound eyes, which are poorly suited to vision in dim light. Here, we theoretically examine how nocturnal bees Megalopta genalis fly at light levels usually reserved for insects bearing more sensitive superposition eyes. We find that neural summation should greatly increase M. genalis's visual reliability. Predicted spatial summation closely matches the morphology of laminal neurons believed to mediate such summation. Improved reliability costs acuity, but dark adapted bees already suffer optical blurring, and summation further degrades vision only slightly. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.}},
  author       = {{Theobald, Jamie and Greiner, Birgit and Weislo, WT and Warrant, Eric}},
  issn         = {{1878-5646}},
  keywords     = {{halictid bees; neural summation; nocturnal vision; noise; apposition compound eyes}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{14}},
  pages        = {{2298--2309}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{Vision Research}},
  title        = {{Visual summation in night-flying sweat bees: A theoretical study}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.visres.2006.01.002}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.visres.2006.01.002}},
  volume       = {{46}},
  year         = {{2006}},
}