Serres, J. R. | Search bioRxiv

bioRxiv2021

An innovative optical context to make honeybees crash repeatedly

To investigate altitude control in honeybees, an optical context was designed to make honeybees crash. It has been widely accepted that honeybees rely on the optic flow generated by the ground to control their altitude. However, identifying an optical context capable of uncorrelating forward speed from altitude in honeybees flight was the first step towards enhancing the optical context to better understand altitude control in honeybees. This optical context aims to put honeybees in the same flight conditions as an open sky flight above mirror-smooth water. An optical manipulation, based on a pair of opposed horizontal mirrors, was designed to remove any visual information coming from the floor and ceiling. Such an optical manipulation reproduced quantitatively the seminal experiment of Heran & Lindauer (1963), and revealed that honeybees control their altitude by detecting the optic flow with a visual field that extends to approximately 165{degrees}.

animal behavior and cognition↗

bioRxiv2019

Optic flow helps explain gulls’ altitude control over seas

For studies of how flying animals control their flight, seabirds are of particular interest to track with a biologger because they forage offshore where the visual environment can be simply modeled by a flat world textured by waves. This study suggests that optic flow can explain gulls altitude control over seas. In particular, a new flight model that includes both energy and optical invariants (called the ventral optic flow regulation) explain the dynamics of gulls altitude control during offshore takeoff and cruising flight. A linear statistical model applied to 352 flights from 16 individual lesser black backed gulls (Larus fuscus) gave a strong correlation between wind assistance and gulls altitude. Thereafter, an optic flow-based flight model was applied to 18 offshore takeoff flights from 1. individual gulls. By introducing an upper limit in climb rate in a non-linear first order parametric model on the gulls elevation dynamics, coupled with an optic-flow set-point, the predicted altitude gives an optimized fit factor value of 63% on average (min value: 30%, max value: 83%) with respect to GPS data. We conclude that the optic-flow regulation principle (here running close to 25{degrees}/s) allows gulls to adjust their altitude over sea without having to directly measure their current altitude.

neuroscience↗