Bee's Behavior

How many eyes does a honey bee have?

Honey bees‘ vision is one of the wonders of this amazing creature. Surprisingly, they can see color much faster than human beings. In fact, they can perceive ultraviolet light, which helps them to distinguish flowers easily, even while flying at high speed. Many patterns on flowers that we cannot see are visible to the bees. They are attracted to blue, purple, and violet colors. 

How many eyes does a honey bee have?

Honey bees have five eyes: three simple eyes and two large compound eyes. The single lensed simple eyes are also referred to as ocelli and are situated at the top of the bee’s head in a triangular pattern. The compound eyes are located on each side of the head and possess thousands of minute lenses. The two sets of eyes are specialized to perform varying tasks simultaneously. 

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Compound Eyes

These are the eyes that we see when we look at a bee. They help the honey bees to figure out shapes and colors in the vicinity. Each compound eye has thousands of photoreceptor cells referred to as ommatidia. Each ommatidium contain lens and a nerve connection. The numerous lenses focus light onto retinula cells to see an image and color.  Individual lenses take in information helping the bees see one larger image or object.  

The Simple Eyes

The three small eyes are vital for navigation and orientation, They collect and focus light through a single lens. They allow the bees to orientate towards the sun to navigate well during the day. They also assess the magnitude of the light and retain stability while navigating. Bees species that are active from dusk to dawn have enlarged ocelli which help to detect minor differences in light to assist navigation in the dark.

Can honey bees see better than human beings?

Honey bees perceive the world differently than us and up to five times faster. We see wavelengths between 390 to 750, while honey bees see from about 300 to 650 nm. This means ultraviolet light is visible, but they cannot perceive red. 

And while we can only register a motion that takes 1/50th of a second, they can register a motion of 1/300 per second. The bees are also able to see polarized light. This means they can see the sun on a cloudy, overcast day which helps them to navigate. They can also differentiate dark and light, making them excellent at seeing edges. However, they may have trouble distinguishing shapes with smooth lines.

Like human beings, honey bees are trichromatic. This means that they base their color combinations on three colors. While humans base their color combination on green, blue, and red, honey bees base theirs on blue, green, and ultraviolet light. 

While honey bees can perceive ultraviolet light and can see faster than humans, a human eye is very sophisticated compared to bees. However, their vision is unique and remarkable to their needs. 

Honey Bees Contain Hairs on the Eyes. How do they help them?

Honey bees’ eyes are encircled by a thick layer of hair on eyeballs. The hairs on the eyes help them to detect wind direction making it easy to navigate and stay on course when it is windy. The nerve extensions in the hair assist in seeing even the slightest force of the wind and then pass the information to the brain to help them steer in the right direction. The hairs also help to protect the eyes while collecting pollen. When foraging, their hairs are covered with pollen. Before taking a flight back to the hive, they remove the pollen particles that are stuck on its hairy body. 

How do bees locate flowers to collect nectar?

Bees are attracted most to violet, blue, and purple flowers. On top of the color guiding, they also use ultraviolet patterns and electric charge. As they are flying in the air, they build a positive charge while the flowers contain a negative charge which draws the bees to the flowers. It also draws pollen from the flowers to the bees’ hairy body. Surprisingly, some flowers inform bees if they are already pollinated. This helps to save the honey bees time by visiting only the flowers that need to be pollinated. A worker bee will master the color, ultraviolet pattern, and shape of a specific flower species in a foraging tour. She will then focus on collecting nectar and pollen from that species as long as it is available and contains high-quality food resources. 

Do honey bees see moving objects better?

While humans see stationery objects better, moving objects are more visible to honey bees. That is why they are more likely to attack a person who is running. They are also able to assess distances better while flying. They will likely collect nectar flowers that are being shaken by the wind. Unlike humans, who can see images at 180 degrees, they can detect even the slightest movements at 360 degrees. They can perceive looming danger around them. 

The Vision of a Drone Bee Compared to Worker Bee

There is a noticeable difference between a worker bee and a drone bee’s eyesight. Apart from the large size, the drone’s compound eyes, which face upwards, have about 8600 lenses, while a worker bee has 6900 lenses. Drones need excellent eyesight to spot virgin queens while flying in the air. Mating of virgin queens takes place in drone congregation areas. 

Do bees see at night?

While most bees are active during the day (diurnal), few bee species start foraging after sunset.  Examples of nocturnal species are Apidae and Genus Apis. Their simple and compound eyes have become larger due to the limited light available at night. The compound eyes also contain more lenses than those of diurnal species. Nocturnal species can forage all night when there is adequate moonlight. In areas where you find nocturnal species, many plant species have flowers that open at night. Others prefer to seek food resources at night since there is minimal competition from other bee species, insects, and birds. 

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FAQs

What is the color of honey bee eyes?

Most honey bee species have black eyes. The thousands of lenses that make up the compound eye are also black. However, some bee species contain startling colored eyes like blue, silver, pale green, or yellow. 

Do bees visit red flowers?

While red colors are invisible to the honey bees, they may still visit the red flowers since they can perceive the ultraviolet markings in the flower. This is the secret communication between honey bees and humans that we cannot see with our naked eyes. Numerous flowers have parts of the flowers that reflect ultraviolet light.

You might be interested in our article ” Do Bees Have Lungs? How do honey bees breathe?

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