How does the western honey bee see?
The western honey bee (Apis mellifera) is a insect in the order Hymenoptera. Its eyes belong to the vision type Bee, ant and locust UV trichromat: 3 receptors (UV/blue/green), no red, very low acuity compound eye, fast CFF, polarisation.
Measured in this species: colour, sharpness, foveas, night vision and motion (flicker fusion). Measured core: measured values on at least 3 of the 6 dials. Every value below carries its evidence level and sources; nothing is typed by hand.
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What stands out
- It has three colour receptor classes, like most people, but one of them sees ultraviolet.
- Its sharpest vision resolves 0.25 cycles per degree: the finest stripe pattern it can tell apart from grey.
- It stops seeing flicker at 220 Hz, against 60 Hz for people in this dataset, so fast motion looks about 3.7 times slower to it.[12][10]
- Activity pattern: diurnal.
The six dials
Evidence levels: how the tiers work. "Measured" means a value measured in this species; "Estimated" values come from a close relative or an eye-size formula.
| Dial | Value | Evidence | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| Colour | Colour receptors 3 receptor classes: 344 nm (UVS), 436 nm (VS/SWS (violet)), 556 nm (LWS (long)) measured in this species | Measured (not re-verified) | [1][2][3] |
| Ultraviolet yes: at least one receptor peaks in the ultraviolet | Measured (not re-verified) | ||
| Sharpness | Acuity 0.25 cycles per degree median of 4 behavioural rows (method priority rule); acceptance_angle_deg: male / drone rows set aside (labelled alternative: 1.45); acuity_cpd: dim-light rows (bright-light rows used) set aside (labelled alternative… | Measured (not re-verified) | [4] |
| Angle between facets 0.8° minimum (acute-zone) interommatidial angle over sources; within caves2018: minimum (round-1 rule: mean of horizontal and vertical when both exist); interommatidial_angle_deg: male / drone rows set aside (labelled… | Measured | [5] | |
| Eye type compound eye | |||
| Field of view | No value in the catalogue. | ||
| Sharp zones (foveas) | Number of foveas 0 species-v1.csv text: frontal acute zone (compound eye) | Measured (not re-verified) | [6] |
| Fovea type acute zone | Measured | [7][6] | |
| Night vision | Activity pattern diurnal mode of 2 rows (of 2 rows): diurnal | Measured | [8][9] |
| Rods vs cones no rods (invertebrate photoreceptors) nocturnal -> rod-dominated; crepuscular / cathemeral / mixed -> mixed; diurnal -> cone-dominated | Derived | [8][9] | |
| Motion (flicker fusion) | Flicker fusion frequency 220 Hz median of 2 bright-light rows (behavioural/whole-eye ERG rows; all rows: [200.0, 240.0]) | Measured | [10][11] |
Other senses
- polarisation vision: optional overlay of degree/angle of linear polarisation (Group default)
Comparisons
Related animals
- Bull ant (Myrmecia gulosa) same vision type
- Buff-tailed bumblebee same vision type
- Saharan silver ant same vision type
- Bull ant (Myrmecia croslandi) same vision type
- Bull ant (Myrmecia tarsata) same vision type
- Bull ant (Myrmecia vindex) same vision type
More insects: all insects with measured vision data.
Sources
- Kelber A, Vorobyev M, Osorio D. 2003. Animal colour vision - behavioural tests and physiological concepts. Biol Rev 78:81-118. doi.org/10.1017/S1464793102005985
- Kirwan J. luxR 0.1.1: Underwater Light Analysis and Visual Ecology (R-universe), data species_sensitivities. github.com/JohnKirwan/luxR
- Porter ML et al. 2006 Table 1 (opsin accessions with lambda max; mostly cephalopod/arthropod) as extracted by VPOD. github.com/VisualPhysiologyDB/visual-physiology-opsin-db
- Kelber A, Somanathan H 2019. Spatial Vision and Visually Guided Behavior in Apidae. Insects. doi.org/10.3390/insects10120418
- Caves EM, Brandley NC, Johnsen S (2018) Visual acuity and the evolution of signals. Trends Ecol Evol 33:358-372. Supplementary Tables S1-S3.. doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2018.03.001
- species_v1:Rigosi, Warrant & O'Carroll 2021
- Rigosi E, Warrant EJ, O'Carroll DC. 2021. A new, fluorescence-based method for visualizing the pseudopupil and assessing optical acuity in the dark compound eyes of honeybees and other insects. Scientific reports 11(1):21267. doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-00407-2
- Feuda R, Marletaz F, Bentley MA, Holland PWH. 2016. Conservation, duplication, and divergence of five opsin genes in insect evolution. Genome Biol Evol 8:579-587
- Longcore T. 2023. A compendium of photopigment peak sensitivities and visual spectral response curves of terrestrial wildlife to guide design of outdoor nighttime lighting. Basic Appl Ecol 73:40-50. doi:10.1016/j.baae.2023.09.002. doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8432720
- Inger R, Bennie J, Davies TW, Gaston KJ. 2014. Potential biological and ecological effects of flickering artificial light. PLoS ONE 9(5): e98631. Table 3. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0098631
- Lafitte A, Sordello R, Legrand M, Nicolas V, Obein G, Reyjol Y. 2022. A flashing light may not be that flashy: A systematic review on critical fusion frequencies. PLoS ONE 17(12): e0279718. S10 File (CFF database). doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0279718
- Healy K, McNally L, Ruxton GD, Cooper N, Jackson AL. 2013. Metabolic rate and body size are linked with perception of temporal information. Animal Behaviour 86:685-696. Table 1. doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2013.06.018
Every value cites its sources (all sources). Data: catalogue-v1, built 2026-09-29. Accuracy notes: how accurate is this?