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Polarisation Vision in Ants, Bees and Wasps

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Polarized Light and Polarization Vision in Animal Sciences

Part of the book series: Springer Series in Vision Research ((SSVR,volume 2))

Abstract

We review here what is known from behavioural, anatomical and physiological studies about polarisation sensitivity in the hymenopteran insect groups of ants, wasps and bees. We briefly summarise the behavioural evidence for the use of polarised skylight in orientation and navigation, including some lesser known or less accessible older work, and then review our state of knowledge of the polarisation sensitivity and the arrangement of photoreceptors in compound eyes and in ocelli. We note in particular how little we know about the role of ocelli in polarisation vision.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge funding support from the Australian Research Council’s (ARC) Centre of Excellence Scheme (CE0561903), an ARC Discovery Project and Australian Postdoctoral fellowship (DP0986006), an ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DE120100019), Hermon Slade Foundation and the GO8-DAAD Germany Australia Research Cooperation Scheme. We thank Eric Meyer, Eric Warrant, Rüdiger Wehner and Tom Labhart for generously providing TEM and SEM images. We thank Rüdiger Wehner for comments on the draft manuscript and Matthias Flötenmeyer MPI Tübingen for his support and the use of the EM-facilities.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research School of Biology, The Australian National University, Bld 46, Biology Place, Canberra, ACT0200, Australia

    Jochen Zeil, Willi A. Ribi & Ajay Narendra

  2. The Private University of Liechtenstein, Dorfstrasse 24, Triesen, FL-9495, Liechtenstein

    Willi A. Ribi

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  1. Jochen Zeil
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  2. Willi A. Ribi
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  3. Ajay Narendra
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Correspondence to Jochen Zeil .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Environmental Optics Laboratory, Dept. Biological Physics, Eötvös University, Budapest, Hungary

    Gábor Horváth

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Zeil, J., Ribi, W.A., Narendra, A. (2014). Polarisation Vision in Ants, Bees and Wasps. In: Horváth, G. (eds) Polarized Light and Polarization Vision in Animal Sciences. Springer Series in Vision Research, vol 2. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-54718-8_3

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