title: Dominance of the odometer over serial landmark learning in honeybee navigation.
abstract: Honeybees use their visual flow field to measure flight distance. It has been suggested that the experience of serial landmarks encountered on the flight toward a feeding place contributes to distance estimation. Here, we address this question by tracing the flight paths of individual bees with a harmonic radar system. Bees were trained along an array of three landmarks (tents), and the distance between these landmarks was either increased or decreased under two test conditions. We find that absolute distance estimation dominates the search for the feeding place, but serial position effects are also found. In the latter case, bees search only or additionally at locations determined by serial experience of the landmarks.
authors.affiliation: Institut für Biologie, Neurobiologie, Freie Universität Berlin, Königin Luisestr, 28/30, 14195 Berlin, Germany. menzel@neurobiologie.fu-berlin.de
authors.forename: Randolf
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Menzel
authors.forename: Jacqueline
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fuchs
authors.forename: Leonard
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Nadler
authors.forename: Benjamin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Weiss
authors.forename: Nicole
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kumbischinski
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Adebiyi
authors.forename: Sergej
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hartfil
authors.forename: Uwe
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Greggers
mesh_terms: D000821:Animal Feed; D000818:Animals; D001516:Bees / Q000502:physiology*; D004215:Distance Perception; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005426:Flight, Animal; D006799:Housing, Animal; D007858:Learning; D011825:Radar; D013028:Space Perception