How bees exploit optic flow: behavioural experiments and neural models

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Over the past thirty or so years, motion processing in insects has been studied primarily through the ‘optomotor response’, a turning response evoked by the movement of a large-field visual pattern. More recently, however, evidence is accumulating to suggest that, in addition to the optomotor pathway, there are other pathways which use motion information in subtler ways. When an insect moves in a stationary environment, the resulting optic flow field is rich in information that can be exploited to estimate the distance to a surface, distinguish between objects at different distances, land on a contrasting edge, or distinguish an object from a similarly textured background. This article reviews recent behavioural studies in our laboratory, investigating how honeybees accomplish such tasks.

This publication has 14 references indexed in Scilit: