The role of spatial texture in visual control of bumblebee learning flights

Linander, Nellie; Dacke, Marie; Baird, Emily; Ibarra, Natalie Hempel de

doi:10.1007/s00359-018-1274-0

Cited by 10 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…Previous work in different insects has shown that the texture presented in the ventral and lateral field of view is important for flight control (Linander et al 2017 , 2018 ; Portelli et al 2011 ; Straw et al 2010 ). Our results suggest that it would be interesting to do similar experiments in Episyrphys hoverflies, by e.g.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We took photos of the ground over which the hoverfly was performing its behavior and panoramic photographs of the surrounding. We focused on images from the ventral and lateral parts of the visual field as these appear to be particularly important for insect flight control (Linander et al 2017 ; 2018 ; Portelli et al 2011 ; Straw et al 2010 ). In addition, panoramic images have been used extensively to understand motion vision coding in the insect brain (for hoverfly examples, see e.g., O’Carroll et al 2011 , 2012 ; Barnett et al 2010 ; Straw et al 2008 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Image statistics of the environment surrounding freely behaving hoverflies

et al. 2019

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Natural scenes are not as random as they might appear, but are constrained in both space and time. The 2-dimensional spatial constraints can be described by quantifying the image statistics of photographs. Human observers perceive images with naturalistic image statistics as more pleasant to view, and both fly and vertebrate peripheral and higher order visual neurons are tuned to naturalistic image statistics. However, for a given animal, what is natural differs depending on the behavior, and even if we have a broad understanding of image statistics, we know less about the scenes relevant for particular behaviors. To mitigate this, we here investigate the image statistics surrounding Episyrphus balteatus hoverflies, where the males hover in sun shafts created by surrounding trees, producing a rich and dense background texture and also intricate shadow patterns on the ground. We quantified the image statistics of photographs of the ground and the surrounding panorama, as the ventral and lateral visual field is particularly important for visual flight control, and found differences in spatial statistics in photos where the hoverflies were hovering compared to where they were flying. Our results can, in the future, be used to create more naturalistic stimuli for experimenter-controlled experiments in the laboratory.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Image statistics of the environment surrounding freely behaving hoverflies

et al. 2019

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“…We discarded the few flights in which bees landed during the learning flight or flew directly away from the nest. Bumblebee learning flights have two phases: an initial phase in which bees fly close to the nest and are low on the ground and a second phase in which they gain height and fly further from the nest (Collett et al, 2013; Linander et al, 2018; Lobecke et al, 2018; Philippides et al, 2013; Riabinina et al, 2014). We stopped analysis of the flights once the bees had travelled 5cm from the nest.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

How bumblebees coordinate path integration and body orientation at the start of their first learning flight

Collett

Robert

Frasnelli

et al. 2022

Preprint

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The start of a bumblebees first learning flight from its nest provides an opportunity to examine the bees learning behaviour on its initial view of the nests unfamiliar surroundings. Bumblebees like many other ants, bees and wasps learn views of their nest surroundings while facing their nest. A bumblebees first fixation of the nest is a coordinated manoeuvre in which the insect faces the nest with its body oriented towards a particular visual feature within its surroundings. The manoeuvres utility is that during return flights after foraging bees, when close to the nest, adopt the same preferred body-orientation (Hempel de Ibarra et al., 2009; Robert et al., 2018). A translational scan oriented orthogonally to the bees body-orientation helps the bee reach the preferred conjunction of nest-fixation and body-orientation. How does a bee, unacquainted with its surroundings, know when it is facing its nest? The details of nest-fixation argue that, like desert ants (Fleischmann et al., 2018), the bee relies on path integration. Path integration gives bees continuously updated information about the current direction of their nest and enables them to fixate the nest when the body points in the appropriate direction. We relate the three components of the coordinated manoeuvre to events in the central complex, noting that nest fixation is in egocentric coordinates, whereas body orientation and flight direction within the visual surroundings of the nest are in geocentric coordinates.

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“…The learning flight of B. terrestris starts with a period of several seconds in which the bee remains within about 5 or 6 cm of the nest hole and a few centimetres above it. The bee then gradually increases its distance from and its height above the nest ( Linander et al, 2018 ). Bumblebees, in this later phase of the flight, perform a sequence of alternating clockwise and anti-clockwise loops, which carry the bees away from and towards the nest ( Philippides et al, 2013 ).…”

Section: Matching Learning and Return Flightsmentioning

confidence: 99%

An ‘instinct for learning’: the learning flights and walks of bees, wasps and ants from the 1850s to now

Collett

Ibarra

2023

Journal of Experimental Biology

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The learning flights and walks of bees, wasps and ants are precisely coordinated movements that enable insects to memorise the visual surroundings of their nest or other significant places such as foraging sites. These movements occur on the first few occasions that an insect leaves its nest. They are of special interest because their discovery in the middle of the 19th century provided perhaps the first evidence that insects can learn and are not solely governed by instinct. Here, we recount the history of research on learning flights from their discovery to the present day. The first studies were conducted by skilled naturalists and then, over the following 50 years, by neuroethologists examining the insects’ learning behaviour in the context of experiments on insect navigation and its underlying neural mechanisms. The most important property of these movements is that insects repeatedly fixate their nest and look in other favoured directions, either in a preferred compass direction, such as North, or towards preferred objects close to the nest. Nest facing is accomplished through path integration. Memories of views along a favoured direction can later guide an insect's return to its nest. In some ant species, the favoured direction is adjusted to future foraging needs. These memories can then guide both the outward and homeward legs of a foraging trip. Current studies of central areas of the insect brain indicate what regions implement the behavioural manoeuvres underlying learning flights and the resulting visual memories.

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The role of spatial texture in visual control of bumblebee learning flights

Cited by 10 publications

References 44 publications

Image statistics of the environment surrounding freely behaving hoverflies

Image statistics of the environment surrounding freely behaving hoverflies

How bumblebees coordinate path integration and body orientation at the start of their first learning flight

An ‘instinct for learning’: the learning flights and walks of bees, wasps and ants from the 1850s to now

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