Beekeeping

The spectrum of color vision in honey bees

For many years, scientists have been interested in the question of how such a small insect, like a bee, can travel long distances in search of flowering fields and gardens, finding them, and how many flowers they can distinguish. The whole secret and answer lies in the unusual nature of their vision. Next, the features of the vision of these small flying creatures will be considered.

Features of the structure of the eyes of a bee

In the bee family, such individuals are distinguished - drones, workers and the queen bee. They all perform different functions, and therefore the structure of their eyes is different.

Important! Bees even see very fast movements in slow motion and very clearly.

By type

There are two types of eyes in a honey-bearing individual: simple and complex, or facet, organs of vision:

simple - consist of a lens. Their role is that they determine the time of day and see objects blurry or at close range;
complex - are a large number of hexagonal facets coated with hairs. The image is made up of a whole of many separate fragments, so that the bee distinguishes between moving objects and immovable forms during movement.

Eye position

In working individuals, simple eyes are located in the form of a black triangle on the top of the head. Faceted are on the sides and consist of 5 thousand segments.

The simple organs of vision of the queen bee are placed on the forehead. Complex ones are larger in size than working insects, but have fewer segments (up to 4 thousand) due to the fact that the uterus does not fly around large spaces.

Drones have simple eyes also on the forehead. Faceted - the largest in size and have 10 thousand fragments.

amount

The honey-bearing creature has 5 eyes: 2 complex and 3 simple, and the uterus and drones are better developed simple, and the working individuals, respectively, complex. This is due to the scope of their activities.

The world through the eyes of a bee

Given the purpose of simple and facet organs of vision, together they complement each other, helping insects successfully move in a small space and navigate well in flight.

Important! Bees do not distinguish objects with sharp corners (square or triangular), but they notice oval shapes well, which helps them quickly locate flowers.

Do bees see in the dark

Thanks to the presence of simple eyes, honey collectors can see at night. True, night vision does not give clear images, but still they see better than other insects.

Do colors distinguish

A difficult process is the perception by the bees of the colors, from which they distinguish between white, blue, yellow, orange, green and their shades. They assimilate red color and other saturated tones in yellow color. With simple eyes, insects can see in the ultraviolet spectrum. And also notice reflections from glass, water and other crystalline surfaces.

How bees find flowers by their color

Making their flight at a speed of 25-30 km per hour, the bees are not able to see the colors. Only when slowing down and approaching the desired object, they turn on color vision. As mentioned earlier, the hairs located on the faceted organs of vision vibrate on the electric field that emits the flower, because the flowers attract insects not only with their bright color, but also with heat or electricity that affects the nervous system. Moreover, the field is negative in plants, and positive in working individuals. And as a result, between them there is a charge passing through the hairs.

Did you know? If you move the hive from one place to another, then the arriving bee will leave for the initial stay of his house. The eye of a bee is a very complex and unique organ, thanks to which the insect perceives the outside world quite comfortably and performs its function 100%.