Читать книгу Honey Bee Medicine for the Veterinary Practitioner - Группа авторов - Страница 74

Sensory perception is quite advanced in insects, providing these animals a remarkable ability to sense and adjust to their environment. Insects, including honey bees, have several types of sense organs of their exoskeleton that may respond to pressure, odor, taste, sound, or light (Wigglesworth 1972; Snodgrass 1956). Seven different sense organs are described and even though they vary markedly in structure, they have in common a basic unit called the sensillum. The sensillum is composed of one or more sense cells connected to the central nervous system via a sensory axon, and a specific cuticular structure with accessory cells (Snodgrass 1956; Vidal‐Naquet 2015; Wigglesworth 1972). Some of these organs have a small hair, peg, or plate, or a group of sensilla connected to the sense cell or cells and provide many sensory functions for insects (Wigglesworth 1972; Snodgrass 1956). The antennae of honey bees (faced with several types of sense organs) are a major center of communication with many sensory roles, including odor and chemoreception, detection of movement and vibration, as well as the perception of sound, temperature, and humidity (Snodgrass 1956; Vidal‐Naquet 2015).

The Organ of Johnston, located on the pedicel of the antennae, is another sensory organ used in a variety of ways by insects including flight control, navigation, detection of gravitational and electromagnetic fields, mate identification, sound perception, and communication (Wigglesworth 1972). In many insects this organ indicates velocity and orientation in flight and other movements. In the honey bee the Johnston's Organ is also thought to be important for communication between foraging bees during the waggle dance (Tsujiuchi et al. 2007). This organ detects changes in the position of the antennae via mechanical stimulation – from abdomen waggling and wing vibration of a dancing bee – and together with other sensilla translates direction and distance communication to following forager bees during the waggle dance (Brockmann and Robinson 2007; Tsujiuchi et al. 2007).

In addition to the abundant sense organs of the antennae, mouth parts and other portions of the body, honey bees have two types of eyes – the paired compound eyes and three ocelli (Snodgrass 1956). The compound eyes are complex visual organs composed of thousands of hexagonal facets – known as ommatidia – that each function independently to receive, concentrate, and perceive light (Winston 1987). Specific groups of facets are specialized and work together for various functions including detecting light polarization, pattern recognition, color vision, and head movement (Winston 1987). The honey bee collects a mosaic of sensory input to the brain that is integrated to form an image; bees are good at identifying shapes and detecting movement, and may visualize shorter wavelengths (ultraviolet) of light compared with humans. Further, the compound eyes have sensory hairs near the facet junctions that perceive airflow and likely aid in navigation and orientation (Snodgrass 1956). The three ocelli or simple eyes of the honey bee likely do not form an image as with the compound eye, but rather are thought to be important for detecting variations of light intensity that may help diurnal navigation and orientation (Winston 1987).