University of Sussex
Browse

File(s) not publicly available

Nocturnal vision: bees in the dark

journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-07, 23:57 authored by Michael F Land
Some eyes work better in the dark than others. The apposition type of compound eye that bees and other diurnal insects possess is usually of little use after nightfall. Nevertheless some tropical sweat bees have pushed the limits of this unfavourable design so far that they can navigate using landmarks that are too dim for humans to make out. The problem with trying to see in near darkness is that very few photons reach the rhodopsin molecules in the photoreceptors. As photon arrivals are unpredictable, low numbers mean unreliable statistics – just as they do in any other task. In vision, this unreliability takes the form of progressive loss of sensitivity to contrast in the image, which in turn leads to loss of spatial resolution. All this is familiar from our own experience.

History

Publication status

  • Published

Journal

Current Biology

ISSN

0960-9822

Publisher

Elsevier

Issue

15

Volume

14

Page range

R615-R616

Department affiliated with

  • Biology and Environmental Science Publications

Full text available

  • No

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2012-02-06

Usage metrics

    University of Sussex (Publications)

    Categories

    No categories selected

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC