| Nocturnal insects use optic flow for flight control. | |
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MedLine Citation:
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PMID: 21307047 Owner: NLM Status: Publisher |
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
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To avoid collisions when navigating through cluttered environments, flying insects must control their flight so that their sensory systems have time to detect obstacles and avoid them. To do this, day-active insects rely primarily on the pattern of apparent motion generated on the retina during flight (optic flow). However, many flying insects are active at night, when obtaining reliable visual information for flight control presents much more of a challenge. To assess whether nocturnal flying insects also rely on optic flow cues to control flight in dim light, we recorded flights of the nocturnal neotropical sweat bee, Megalopta genalis, flying along an experimental tunnel when: (i) the visual texture on each wall generated strong horizontal (front-to-back) optic flow cues, (ii) the texture on only one wall generated these cues, and (iii) horizontal optic flow cues were removed from both walls. We find that Megalopta increase their groundspeed when horizontal motion cues in the tunnel are reduced (conditions (ii) and (iii)). However, differences in the amount of horizontal optic flow on each wall of the tunnel (condition (ii)) do not affect the centred position of the bee within the flight tunnel. To better understand the behavioural response of Megalopta, we repeated the experiments on day-active bumble-bees (Bombus terrestris). Overall, our findings demonstrate that despite the limitations imposed by dim light, Megalopta-like their day-active relatives-rely heavily on vision to control flight, but that they use visual cues in a different manner from diurnal insects. |
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Authors:
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Emily Baird; Eva Kreiss; William Wcislo; Eric Warrant; Marie Dacke |
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Publication Detail:
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Type: JOURNAL ARTICLE Date: 2011-2-9 |
Journal Detail:
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Title: Biology letters Volume: - ISSN: 1744-957X ISO Abbreviation: - Publication Date: 2011 Feb |
Date Detail:
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Created Date: 2011-2-10 Completed Date: - Revised Date: - |
Medline Journal Info:
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Nlm Unique ID: 101247722 Medline TA: Biol Lett Country: - |
Other Details:
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Languages: ENG Pagination: - Citation Subset: - |
Affiliation:
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Department of Biology, Lund University, , Lund, Sweden. |
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From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine
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