Learning patterns in Honey bees |
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The honey bee uses several different celestial and terrestrial aspects of their surroundings to learn pathways and cues to successful foraging sites and guide them back to their nest sites. The sun plays an important part in learning, where the sun’s position in the sky during the course of the day is used as an orientation device. This information can be known from within the bee nest, due to the bees capability of UV sight. UV receptors in each of the lens units in the compound eye of a bee, along with differentially-oriented filters paired with these receptors, bees are able to detect polarising patterns of light (Chittka et al, 1993).
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The eyes and the brain of honey bees play a large role in the ability to learn and remember tasks, routes and associative links to foraging success. While the brain is relatively small, the advanced eyes of the bee enable comprehension of complex visual tasks (Zhang et al, 2005). The eyes of a honey bee contain many thousands of facets called ommatidia, with each facet capable of separate visual processes. Each individual lens is positioned with a slight directional shift to the others, allowing the bee for complex visual processes. These make up the two compound eyes on either side of the head, with three simple eyes situated on top of the head, with the ventral eyes thought to measure light intensity (Winston, 1991). Advanced visual perception in honey bees plays a large role in learning capabilities, with sight potential for UV light and shifts in polarisation (Zhang et al, 2005).
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Honey bees have colour vision. They are said to have trichromatic colour vision, with eyes containing UV, blue and green receptors. This ability is thought to have evolved in relation to pollination, as the reflections of some flowers contain UV signals to attract and guide honey bees. Honey bees are important pollinators, and as they are capable of associating stimulus with reward, UV capabilities and colour recognition between bees and flowers is seen as an important communication, with learning of successful floral colours and patterns vital to both pollen dispersal and food gain (Chittka, 1993).
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