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Polarization vision in bees

Abstract

A solution to the long-standing problem of how honey bees detect polarized light from the sky is presented. The mechanism involves the transformation of polarization information into modulations of perceived brightness while the bee scans the sky by rotating its field of view. Using this technique the bee needs only a very simple strategy to read compass information from the polarization patterns in the sky.

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Rossel, S., Wehner, R. Polarization vision in bees. Nature 323, 128–131 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1038/323128a0

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