# Honeybees flying over a mirror crash irremediably

Julien Serres, Antoine H P Morice, Constance Blary, Gilles Montagne, Franck Ruffier

► To cite this version:

Julien Serres, Antoine H P Morice, Constance Blary, Gilles Montagne, Franck Ruffier. Honeybees flying over a mirror crash irremediably. 4th International Conference on Invertebrate Vision (ICIV), Aug 2019, Bäckaskog, Sweden. , poster number 43, pp.260, 2019, 10.13140/RG.2.2.24911.00162 . hal-03453393

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Submitted on 28 Nov 2021

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Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
# Honeybees flying over a mirror crash irremediably

Julien R. Serres, Antoine H.P. Morice, Constance Blary, Gilles Montagne, and Franck Ruffier

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Aix Marseille University, CNRS, ISM, Marseille, France

Corresponding author: julien.serres@univ-amu.fr

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**Aim:** To investigate if the ventral optic flow is crucial to control honeybees' altitude (Apis mellifera)

## Experimental set-up

* Flight tunnel: 25x71x200 cm

* 1.3 first meters recorded

* 100Hz DALSA Genie HM640

* 4 groups of honeybees

* 15 honeybees per group

* 5 distinct optical contexts

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## “Preferred optic flow pattern” Hypothesis

* Honeybees follow surface in tunnel, such as the floor (or the ceiling).

* Honeybees adjust their altitude to restore a ventral (or dorsal) optic flow set-point.

* A ventral (or a dorsal) optic flow pattern seems to be learned by honeybees during the training session.

See references [1-5]

*Are still honeybees able to fly without ventral optic flow?*

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See Portelli, Serres & Ruffier (2017) [3]

## Results: Without ventral optic flow, honeybees crash irremediably on the floor

* A pair of mirrors on the floor and ceiling can be independently uncovered to suppress any ventral/dorsal optic flow.

* The double mirror condition reproduces the visual uncoupling condition in connection with the work of the Duchon & Warren (2002) [6]. The honeybee's visual informational support can be therefore uncorrelated between the horizontal and the vertical planes.

* Our study reproduces the seminal experiment of Heran & Lindauer (1963) [7]. They trained honeybees to fly above a water surface. When the water surface was provided a visual contrast, honeybees were able to cross the lake. Otherwise, they drowned.

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[1] N. Franceschini, F. Ruffier, J. Serres (2007), *Current Biology* 17 (4), 329-335

[2] M.V. Srinivasan (2011), *Current Opinion in Neurobiology* (24) 4, 535-543

[3] G. Portelli, J.R. Serres and F. Ruffier (2017), *Scientific Reports* (7) 9231

[4] J.R. Serres and F. Ruffier (2017), *Arthropod Structure & Development* (46) 5, 703-717

[5] J. Lecoeur, M. Dacke, D. Floreano and E. Baird (2019), *Scientific Reports* (9) 7707

[6] A.P. Duchon and W.H. Warren (2002), *Psychological Sciences* (13) 3, 272-278

[7] H. Heran and M. Lindauer (1963), *Zeitschrift für vergleichende Physiologie*, 47(1), 39-55.

## Conclusion

* Half low mirror condition reveals honeybees do not directly crash into the down mirror, but go on to fly before crashing.

* Honeybees do not rely on ventral optic flow directly at right angle to fly over the floor, but instead, rely on the overall ventral optic flow pattern.

* Lateral visual inputs alone do not allow honeybees to control their altitude. Dorsal manipulations alone do not affect honeybees' flight.