PhysOrg considers the flight paths of honeybees in three dimensions and finds that the insects are even more precise than anyone imagined:
A team from the University of Freiburg led by neurobiologist and behavioral biologist Prof. Dr. Andrew Straw studied the flight behavior of honey bees. Using a drone, the researchers tracked honey bees as they flew between their hive and a food source about 120 meters away in an agricultural environment.
In order to observe the bees on their respective routes, the scientists used the “Fast Lock-On (FLO) Tracking” method developed by Straw’s working group. This involves attaching a small, highly reflective marker to the insect. On a drone, a computer uses image analysis of reflected light to reliably locate the bee within a few milliseconds and keep track of it.
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The 255 flight paths analyzed were obtained near the Kaiserstuhl, Germany, in an agricultural region containing hedges, a cornfield and a tree blocking the direct route between the beehive and the food source. “We found a high degree of precision in the flight paths. Individual bees repeated their individual flight paths nearly exactly on several flights. They often fly just a few centimeters away from their previous paths,” Straw emphasizes.
The team identified the smallest deviation in the flights near prominent landscape features such as the tree. In contrast, the greatest variability was measured above the cornfield, an area with a very uniform visual structure. “Our results suggest that visual landmarks aid the bees’ navigation and increase the precision of their flight paths,” explains Straw. In contrast, the bees’ uncertainty increases in visually monotonous environments.
You can read more of the Freiburg bee research here, in Current Biology.