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Bumblebee ocelli comparison within and between species

Andersson, Johan (2018) BIOK01 20181
Degree Projects in Biology
Popular Abstract
Bumblebee ocelli, the new buzz

Bumblebees have been described as the insect worlds pandas, cute balls of fur with a calm personality and charm. All this is just a bonus when they also provide an ecosystem service by pollinating the worlds flowers and plants. Being so recognizable has led to that bumblebees have been studied more than many other species, but there are always more things to discover. Nectar and pollen makes up the bumblebee’s diet and this of course comes from plants and flowers. But the bumblebees need some way to get to the flowers and for this task they have wings. However, more things than just wings are required for them to be able to reach their destination, being able to see where you are going is a good start.... (More)
Bumblebee ocelli, the new buzz

Bumblebees have been described as the insect worlds pandas, cute balls of fur with a calm personality and charm. All this is just a bonus when they also provide an ecosystem service by pollinating the worlds flowers and plants. Being so recognizable has led to that bumblebees have been studied more than many other species, but there are always more things to discover. Nectar and pollen makes up the bumblebee’s diet and this of course comes from plants and flowers. But the bumblebees need some way to get to the flowers and for this task they have wings. However, more things than just wings are required for them to be able to reach their destination, being able to see where you are going is a good start. Eyes.

Bumblebees have five eyes, two main ones, compound eyes, and three smaller ones on the top of their head, ocelli. These three small eyes lie very close to each other but still have mostly different views. This helps the bumblebees to navigate and they also help by being the sensory organs for stabilizing them during flight. There are many species of bumblebees in the world, over 250, and they obviously do not look the same. They are not even similar within a species as the males, females and the queen are all different, this is called intraspecific dimorphism. Being able to compare how the ocelli differs in and between species might open up all new possibilities to understanding how bumblebees see the world. That is what this study is all about.

The samples were first scanned using something called Micro computed tomography which works like an x-ray only that it takes pictures from all different angles so that a 3D model is created. This 3D model was then used to single out the ocelli and by that get information about their area and positions in relationship to each other.

The results show that females possibly have smaller eyes than both males and queens which suggests that there is different selection pressure between the sexes. The same thing goes for the height distance between the eyes where females have a smaller distance which further argues for different selection pressure.

Bachelor thesis in biology, BIOK01 2018
Supervisors: Emily Baird, Pierre Tichit
The Vision Group, Lund University (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Andersson, Johan
supervisor
organization
course
BIOK01 20181
year
type
M2 - Bachelor Degree
subject
language
English
id
8962337
date added to LUP
2018-10-25 11:55:33
date last changed
2018-10-25 11:55:33
@misc{8962337,
  author       = {{Andersson, Johan}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Bumblebee ocelli comparison within and between species}},
  year         = {{2018}},
}