Lund Vision Group, Department of Biology, Lund University, Lund, Sweden.
Centre for Research in Animal Behaviour, Psychology, University of Exeter, Exeter, EX4 4QG, UK.
J Comp Physiol A Neuroethol Sens Neural Behav Physiol. 2018 Aug;204(8):737-745. doi: 10.1007/s00359-018-1274-0. Epub 2018 Jul 6.
When leaving the nest for the first time, bees and wasps perform elaborate learning flights, during which the location of the nest is memorised. These flights are characterised by a succession of arcs or loops of increasing radius centred around the nest, with an incremental increase in ground speed, which requires precise control of the flight manoeuvres by the insect. Here, we investigated the role of optic flow cues in the control of learning flights by manipulating spatial texture in the ventral and panoramic visual field. We measured height, lateral displacement relative to the nest and ground speed during learning flights in bumblebees when ventral and panoramic optic flow cues were present or minimised, or features of the ground texture varied in size. Our observations show that ventral optic flow cues were required for the smooth execution of learning flights. We also found that bumblebees adjusted their flight height in response to variations of the visual texture on the ground. However, the presence or absence of panoramic optic flow did not have a substantial effect on flight performance. Our findings suggest that bumblebees mainly rely on optic flow information from the ventral visual field to control their learning flights.
当第一次离巢时，蜜蜂和胡蜂会进行精心的学习飞行，在此过程中记住巢的位置。这些飞行的特点是一系列以巢为中心的半径不断增大的弧形或环形飞行，同时地面速度逐渐增加，这需要昆虫对飞行动作进行精确控制。在这里，我们通过操纵腹侧和全景视觉场中的空间纹理，研究了光流线索在学习飞行控制中的作用。当存在或最小化腹侧和全景光流线索，或地面纹理特征的大小变化时，我们测量了熊蜂在学习飞行过程中的高度、相对于巢的横向位移和地面速度。我们的观察表明，腹侧光流线索是顺利执行学习飞行所必需的。我们还发现，熊蜂会根据地面纹理的变化调整飞行高度。然而，全景光流的存在与否对飞行性能没有实质性影响。我们的研究结果表明，熊蜂主要依赖腹侧视觉场中的光流信息来控制它们的学习飞行。
