Abstract
Stingless bees are important pollinators in the tropics. The tremendous variation in body size makes them an excellent group to study how miniaturization affects vision and visual behaviours. Using direct measurements and micro-CT, we reconstructed the eye structure, estimated anatomical spatial resolution and optical sensitivity of the stingless bee Tetragonula iridipennis. T. iridipennis is similar in size to the Australian stingless bee Tetragonula carbonaria and is smaller than honeybees. It has correspondingly small eyes (area = 0.56 mm2), few ommatidia (2451 ± 127), large inter-facet (3.0 ± 0.6°) and acceptance angles (2.8°). Theoretical estimates suggest that T. iridipennis has poorer spatial resolution (0.17 cycles degree−1) than honeybees, bumblebees, and T. carbonaria. Its optical sensitivity (0.08 µm2 sr), though higher than expected, is within the range of diurnal bees. This may provide them with greater contrast sensitivity, which is likely more relevant than the absolute sensitivity in this diurnal bee. Behaviourally determined detection thresholds for single targets using y-maze experiments were 11.5° for targets that provide chromatic contrast alone and 9.1° for targets providing chromatic and achromatic contrast. Further studies into microhabitat preferences and behaviour are required to understand how miniaturization influences its visual ecology.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Isai Amudhu for her contribution towards the estimation of ommatidial diameters and numbers using the nail polish method. We also thank Mr. Gopan for providing us with stingless bee hives. We acknowledge Diamond Light Source for time on Beamline I13 under Proposal mt16052-1. We thank Carina Rasmussen for her expert histological help. We also thank the three anonymous reviewers for the constructive comments.
Funding
Asmi Jezeera was funded by a research fellowship from Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), India. We acknowledge a Swedish Research Links grant (2016-05635) from the Swedish Research Council and funding by IISER TVM to AK and HS. EB and PT were supported by grants from the Swedish Research Council (2018-06238 and 2014-4762), the Lund University Natural Sciences Faculty, and Interreg (Project LU-011).
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AJ, HS and AK conceptualised the study, AJ and BGS carried out the pilot study and AJ conducted the behavioural experiments and the direct eye measurements, PT and EB carried out the Micro-CT studies and PT performed the hanging drop experiment, AK carried out TEM measurements, AJ and BGS analysed the data, AJ, HS, PT and AK drafted the manuscript. All authors critically revised and approved the manuscript.
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Jezeera, M.A., Tichit, P., Balamurali, G.S. et al. Spatial resolution and sensitivity of the eyes of the stingless bee, Tetragonula iridipennis. J Comp Physiol A 208, 225–238 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-021-01521-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-021-01521-2