Bee Quiz: Immaculate Navigation
National Honey Bee Appreciation Day was August 18th. Did you brush up on your bee facts? Take our bee quiz to test your knowledge.
Bee Quiz
2.) How do bees navigate the air?
Answer:
Ever wonder how tiny bees fly between walls and onto surfaces effortlessly? Not all winged creatures possess such Olympian grace. We've seen pigeons completely botch the landing, but honeybees always seem to get it right.
According to a 2002 Australian National University study, honeybees have complex neural mechanisms at work in flight: they take cues from optic flow. Bees balance speed of the images of the two walls to remain at the midpoint between them. They hold the average image velocity constant to maintain their speed and to slow down as they approach a surface to make a safe landing.
READ MORE:
The Diving Beetle's Sexy Tower of Sperm
Kids Do Groundbreaking Bee Research
--image by istock/itchySan
Posted by Green Life at 12:03:33 PM
in Animals
