How bees use peripheral eye regions to localize a frontally positioned target

1.	Bees were trained to enter the central hole in a disc containing 89 holes and collect sugar-water from a box placed behind it (Fig. 1). Visual marks were offered on the inner surface of a cylinder placed in front of the disc (Fig. 2), thus projecting onto peripheral (nonfrontal) regions of the bees' eye. The trained bees were tested by recording their choices among the holes.
2.	Bees use the memorized position of peripheral marks to localize the frontally positioned goal (Figs. 6–9). The effectiveness of a mark depends on its retinal position, the most effective marks being lateral ones (Figs. 8, 9).
3.	Altering the dimensions of the mark does not influence the distribution of the bees' choice (Figs. 11–13). Thus, image motion rather than image size is used for distance estimation in the present task.
4.	Cinematographic recordings (Fig. 14) revealed that the searching bees' whereabouts are correlated with the choice distribution (Fig. 6a). The hypothesis that the bees stabilize the mark in the trained retinal position by correcting for retinal image slip is proposed.
5.	Experiments using coloured patterns revealed that the bees' performance is mediated by the green-sensitive channel (Figs. 17–22), as predicted by the above hypothesis.

Dedicated to Prof. Dr. Rüdiger Wehner on the occasion of his 50th birthday, in great appreciation for both his scientific work and his personality.