Polarized light orientation of the honey bee: The minimum visual angle

1976 ◽  
Vol 109 (3) ◽  
pp. 309-314 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wolfgang Edrich ◽  
Otto von Heiversen
Keyword(s):  
Honey Bee ◽  
Visual Angle ◽  
Polarized Light

The Orientation of Ants

1954 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 341-355
Author(s):  
D. M. VOWLES
Keyword(s):  
Honey Bee ◽  
Polarized Light ◽  
Stimulus Light ◽  
Experimental Conditions ◽  
Directional Stimulus ◽  
Actual Relationship

1. Von Frisch has shown that in the honey-bee orientation established in relation to one directional stimulus (light) can be transferred to another directional stimulus (gravity or polarized light). In the present work the orientation of ants has been studied in experiments in which one type of directional stimulus has been replaced by another. Light, gravity and polarized light have been used as stimuli. 2. When light and gravity are interchanged, the ant's successive orientations to the two stimuli are correlated. The angle between the track and the stimulus is the same for both orientations. 3. When light and polarized light are interchanged, the ant's successive orientations are again correlated. The actual relationship depends on the experimental conditions. 4. When polarized light and gravity are interchanged there is no significant correlation between successive orientations. 5. It is suggested that in bees and ants there is a single taxis mechanism for orientation to light, polarized light and gravity, and that the ‘setting’ of this mechanism during an orientation to one stimulus persists and partially determines the subsequent orientation to another stimulus.

scholarly journals THE VISUAL ACUITY OF THE HONEY BEE

1929 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 727-760 ◽  
Author(s):  
Selig Hecht ◽  
Ernst Wolf
Keyword(s):  
Visual Acuity ◽  
Visual Field ◽  
Honey Bee ◽  
Visual Angle ◽  
Distribution Curve ◽  
Angular Separation ◽  
Maximum Density ◽  
Resolving Power ◽  
Apical Angle ◽  
Human Eye

1. Bees respond by a characteristic reflex to a movement in their visual field. By confining the field to a series of parallel dark and luminous bars it is possible to determine the size of bar to which the bees respond under different conditions and in this way to measure the resolving power or visual acuity of the eye. The maximum visual acuity of the bee is lower than the lowest human visual acuity. Under similar, maximal conditions the fineness of resolution of the human eye is about 100 times that of the bee. 2. The eye of the bee is a mosaic composed of hexagonal pyramids of variable apical angle. The size of this angle determines the angular separation between adjacent ommatidia and therefore sets the structural limits to the resolving power of the eye. It is found that the visual angle corresponding to the maximum visual acuity as found experimentally is identical with the structural angular separation of adjacent ommatidia in the region of maximum density of ommatidia population. When this region of maximum ommatidia population is rendered non-functional by being covered with an opaque paint, the maximum visual acuity then corresponds to the angular separation of those remaining ommatidia which now constitute the maximum density of population. 3. The angular separation of adjacent ommatidia is much smaller in the vertical (dorso-ventral) axis than in the horizontal (anterio-posterior) axis. The experimentally found visual acuity varies correspondingly. From this and other experiments as well as from the shape of the eye itself, it is shown that the bee's eye is essentially an instrument for uni-directional visual resolution, functional along the dorso-ventral axis. The resolution of the visual pattern is therefore determined by the vertical angular separation of those ocular elements situated in the region of maximum density of ommatidia population. 4. The visual acuity of the bee varies with the illumination in much the same way that it does for the human eye. It is low at low illuminations; as the intensity of illumination increases it increases at first slowly and then rapidly; and finally at high intensities it becomes constant. The resolving power of a structure like the bee's eye depends on the distance which separates the discrete receiving elements. The data then mean that at low illuminations the distance between receiving elements is large and that this distance decreases as the illumination increases. Since such a moving system cannot be true anatomically it must be interpreted functionally. It is therefore proposed that the threshold of the various ommatidia are not the same but that they vary as any other characteristic of a population. The visual acuity will then depend on the distance apart of those elements whose thresholds are such that they are functional at the particular illumination under investigation. Taking due consideration of the angular separation of ommatidia it is possible to derive a distribution curve for the thresholds of the ommatidia which resembles the usual probability curves, and which describes the data with complete fidelity.

scholarly journals ON THE RELATION BETWEEN MEASUREMENTS OF INTENSITY DISCRIMINATION AND OF VISUAL ACUITY IN THE HONEY BEE

1933 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. 773-786 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ernst Wolf
Keyword(s):  
Visual Acuity ◽  
Visual Field ◽  
Honey Bee ◽  
Visual Angle ◽  
Constant Level ◽  
Intensity Discrimination ◽  
Direct Test ◽  
Discrimination Power ◽  
Consistent Manner

1. Bees respond by a characteristic reflex to a movement of their visual field. By confining the field to a series of parallel stripes of two alternating different brightnesses it is possible to determine for any width of stripe, at any brightness of one of the two sets of stripes, the brightness of the second at which the bee will first respond to a displacement of the field. Thus the relations between visual acuity and intensity discrimination can be studied. 2. For each width of stripe and visual angle subtended by the stripe the discrimination power of the bee's eye for different brightnesses was studied. For each visual acuity the intensity discrimination varies with illumination in a characteristic, consistent manner. The discrimination is poor at low illuminations; as the intensity of illumination increases the discrimination increases, and reaches a constant level at high illuminations. 3. From the intensity discrimination curves obtained at different visual acuities, visual acuity curves can be reconstructed for different values of ΔI/I. The curves thus obtained are identical in form with the curve found previously by direct test for the relation between visual acuity and illumination.

Memoirs: The Muscles of the Adult Honey-Bee (Apis Mellifera L.)

1928 ◽  
Vol s2-72 (287) ◽  
pp. 511-526
Author(s):  
GUY D. MORISON
Keyword(s):  
Apis Mellifera ◽  
Honey Bee ◽  
Polarized Light ◽  
Muscular Contraction ◽  
Ph Values

1. The chemistry of the muscles is described in outline. With it are included pH values and pigment. 2. The appearance of muscle under polarized light is discussed. 3. The effects of age and fatigue on muscle could not be determined by the techniques adopted. 4. The theories of muscular contraction are summarized briefly.

High Voltage Electron Microscopy of Ion-Milled Dental Enamel

1974 ◽  
Vol 32 ◽  
pp. 60-61
Author(s):  
L. D. Ackerman ◽  
S. H. Y. Wei
Keyword(s):  
Electron Microscopy ◽  
High Voltage ◽  
Third Molar ◽  
Polarized Light ◽  
Dental Enamel ◽  
Longitudinal Section ◽  
Ion Milling ◽  
High Voltage Electron Microscopy ◽  
Voltage Electron ◽  
High Voltage Electron

Mature human dental enamel has presented investigators with several difficulties in ultramicrotomy of specimens for electron microscopy due to its high degree of mineralization. This study explores the possibility of combining ion-milling and high voltage electron microscopy as a means of circumventing the problems of ultramicrotomy.A longitudinal section of an extracted human third molar was ground to a thickness of about 30 um and polarized light micrographs were taken. The specimen was attached to a single hole grid and thinned by argon-ion bombardment at 15° incidence while rotating at 15 rpm. The beam current in each of two guns was 50 μA with an accelerating voltage of 4 kV. A 20 nm carbon coating was evaporated onto the specimen to prevent an electron charge from building up during electron microscopy.

Identification of calcium oxalate crystals in dried or fixed tobacco leaf

1984 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
pp. 288-289
Author(s):  
Vicki L. Baliga ◽  
Mary Ellen Counts
Keyword(s):  
Electron Microscopy ◽  
Scanning Electron Microscopy ◽  
Calcium Oxalate ◽  
Growth And Development ◽  
Polarized Light ◽  
Calcium Oxalate Crystals ◽  
X Ray Diffraction ◽  
X Ray ◽  
Transmission Electron ◽  
Scanning Electron

Calcium is an important element in the growth and development of plants and one form of calcium is calcium oxalate. Calcium oxalate has been found in leaf seed, stem material plant tissue culture, fungi and lichen using one or more of the following methods—polarized light microscopy (PLM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and x-ray diffraction.Two methods are presented here for qualitatively estimating calcium oxalate in dried or fixed tobacco (Nicotiana) leaf from different stalk positions using PLM. SEM, coupled with energy dispersive x-ray spectrometry (EDS), and powder x-ray diffraction were used to verify that the crystals observed in the dried leaf with PLM were calcium oxalate.

Differential polarization imaging of sickled cells

1988 ◽  
Vol 46 ◽  
pp. 62-63
Author(s):  
Marcos F. Maestre
Keyword(s):  
Optical Properties ◽  
Theoretical Approach ◽  
Polarized Light ◽  
Polarization Microscopy ◽  
Spectroscopic Techniques ◽  
Polarization Imaging ◽  
Circularly Polarized Light ◽  
Circularly Polarized ◽  
Microscopic Scale ◽  
Chiral Structures

Recently we have developed a form of polarization microscopy that forms images using optical properties that have previously been limited to macroscopic samples. This has given us a new window into the distribution of structure on a microscopic scale. We have coined the name differential polarization microscopy to identify the images obtained that are due to certain polarization dependent effects. Differential polarization microscopy has its origins in various spectroscopic techniques that have been used to study longer range structures in solution as well as solids. The differential scattering of circularly polarized light has been shown to be dependent on the long range chiral order, both theoretically and experimentally. The same theoretical approach was used to show that images due to differential scattering of circularly polarized light will give images dependent on chiral structures. With large helices (greater than the wavelength of light) the pitch and radius of the helix could be measured directly from these images.

High-resolution measurement of birefringent fine structure in living cells using a new polarized light microscope

1995 ◽  
Vol 53 ◽  
pp. 54-55
Author(s):  
Rudolf Oldenbourg
Keyword(s):  
Light Microscope ◽  
Fluorescent Dyes ◽  
Polarized Light ◽  
Processing System ◽  
Video Camera ◽  
Molecular Organization ◽  
Computer Assisted ◽  
Image Recording ◽  
Birefringent Crystal ◽  
Technological Advances

The recent renaissance of the light microsope is fueled in part by technological advances in components on the periphery of the microscope, such as the laser as illumination source, electronic image recording (video), computer assisted image analysis and the biochemistry of fluorescent dyes for labeling specimens. After great progress in these peripheral parts, it seems timely to examine the optics itself and ask how progress in the periphery facilitates the use of new optical components and of new optical designs inside the microscope. Some results of this fruitful reflection are presented in this symposium.We have considered the polarized light microscope, and developed a design that replaces the traditional compensator, typically a birefringent crystal plate, with a precision universal compensator made of two liquid crystal variable retarders. A video camera and digital image processing system provide fast measurements of specimen anisotropy (retardance magnitude and azimuth) at ALL POINTS of the image forming the field of view. The images document fine structural and molecular organization within a thin optical section of the specimen.

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