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Color Vision Honey Bees: Phenomena and Physiological Mechanisms

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Facets of Vision

Abstract

Colors are meaningful signals for honey bees. The information value originates from the phylogenetic experience of the species and the ontogenetic experience of each individual with significant objects in its world such as flowers and the immediate surroundings of the hive entrance. The historical controversy concerning color vision in bees arose between the young Karl von Frisch and the physiologist C. von Hess (von Frisch 1914; von Hess 1913) from a misunderstanding of the context specificity of color vision. Von Frisch demonstrated that bees see object colors as a visual quality different from grey shades in the behavioral context of feeding and homing, whilst von Hess showed that bees are color blind in their escape runs towards the light. Von Hess incorrectly generalized that bees are color blind in all behavioral contexts, and von Frisch did not realize that color vision in bees may be limited to certain behaviors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Berlin, Germany

    Randolf Menzel & Werner Backhaus

Authors
  1. Randolf Menzel
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  2. Werner Backhaus
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biophysics, Laboratorium voor Algemene Natuurkunde Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, Westersingel 34, NL-9718, CM Groningen, The Netherlands

    Doekele Gerben Stavenga

  2. Department of Zoology, Cambridge University, Downing Street, GB-Cambridge, CB2 3EJ, England

    Roger Clayton Hardie

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© 1989 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Menzel, R., Backhaus, W. (1989). Color Vision Honey Bees: Phenomena and Physiological Mechanisms. In: Stavenga, D.G., Hardie, R.C. (eds) Facets of Vision. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-74082-4_14

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-74082-4_14

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-74084-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-74082-4

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