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Visual outdoor response of multiple wild bee species: highly selective stimulation of a single photoreceptor type by sunlight-induced fluorescence

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Abstract

Bees have ultraviolet (UV), blue and green photoreceptor types in their compound eyes with which they locate food sources in landscapes that change continuously in cues emanating from plants and backgrounds against which they are perceived. The complexity of bee vision has been elucidated through studies examining individual species under laboratory conditions. Here, we used a bee-attractive fluorescent blue trap as a model for analyzing visual signals in operation outdoors, and across bee species. We manipulated trap color (appearance to humans under light with weak UV component) and UV-induced fluorescence emission, and aligned field capture results with bee vision models. Our studies show that the bees were attracted to traps that under solar illumination exhibited strong fluorescence emission exclusively in the blue spectral region. Through quantitative analysis, we established that strong spectral overlap of trap emittance with the photosensitivity characteristic of the blue receptor type and minimal overlap with those of the other two receptor types is the most critical property of attractive traps. A parameter has been identified which predicts the degree of attractiveness of the traps and which captures trends in the field data across wild bee species and for a diversity of backgrounds.

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Abbreviations

BBF:

Blue blue fluorescent

BF:

Blue fluorescent

BN:

Blue non-fluorescent

CBF:

Clear blue fluorescent

CGF:

Clear green fluorescent

CN:

Clear non-fluorescent

CYF:

Clear yellow fluorescent

JND:

Just-noticeable-difference

RNL:

Receptor noise limited

UV:

Ultraviolet

YF:

Yellow fluorescent

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Acknowledgments

We thank the red clover farmers for permitting the study on their farms and Prof. W. Stephen and Dr. M. Bailey for help identifying the bees. Funding from Agricultural Research Foundation and Oregon State University is acknowledged.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical standard

The ethical standards of the experiments comply with the current laws of the country in which they were performed.

Animal care

Animal care standards comply with the current laws of the country in which they were performed. Reports of animal experiments must state that the “Principles of laboratory animal care” (NIH publication no. 85-23 revised 1985) were followed as well as specific national laws (e.g., the current version of the German Law on the Protection of Animals) where applicable.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Crop and Soil Science, Oregon State University, 3017 ALS, Corvallis, OR, 97331, USA

    Sujaya Rao

  2. Department of Physics, Oregon State University, 301 Weniger Hall, Corvallis, OR, 97331, USA

    Oksana Ostroverkhova

Authors
  1. Sujaya Rao
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  2. Oksana Ostroverkhova
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Correspondence to Oksana Ostroverkhova.

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Rao, S., Ostroverkhova, O. Visual outdoor response of multiple wild bee species: highly selective stimulation of a single photoreceptor type by sunlight-induced fluorescence. J Comp Physiol A 201, 705–716 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-015-0983-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-015-0983-x

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