Navigation and Compass Orientation by Insects According to the Polarization Pattern of the Sky

Abstract

A recent theory attempts to explain how bees take their compass orientation from the pattern of polarized light in the sky (S. Rossel and R . Wehner, Nature 323, 128-131 (1986)). According to this theory, orientation can be erroneous and lead to the wrong course of a recruited bee in search of the foraging site whenever only a small patch of the blue sky is visible to the bee. It is shown that orientation under natural conditions is not erroneous, if the compass reference is variable in time but equally defined for both, scout bees and recruits.