The ocelli control the flight course in honeybees

Abstract Fully-sighted honeybees and bees with all ocelli occluded were trained to fly through an arena to arrive at a feeding place. After training, the bees were exposed to side-light flashes during their feeding flights. The flight paths were recorded on video and analysed frame by frame at 40 ms intervals with reference to the main parameters, the coordinates of the thorax and the yaw angle of the bee. Course angles, translational course velocities and accelerations were calculated, and the responses to side light flashes evaluated with respect to 'on' and 'off.
Immediately after light on, fully-sighted bees respond slightly positively by yawing and flying toward the side light. Bees in which all ocelli are occluded are greatly disturbed and respond with negative yawing and flight path directions.
The ocelli apparently help to control phototactic alertness in the bee. They determine whether phototactic orienting or pattern-induced orienting behaviour is more important in a particular state of motivation. They help to minimize the level of disturbance in flight course control, obviously by activating a neuronal circuit with comparator attributes. It is assumed that this kind of compensation or suppression of phototactically guided reflexes occurs only for a few 100 ms. Consequently, the biological significance of light flashes shorter than 400 ms is very slight.
Fully-sighted bees decelerate strongly when a side light is switched on. Bees in which the ocelli are occluded behave less cautiously: they generally fly faster and need more reaction time. Thus, the ocelli help the bee to react photokinetically to photic stimuli in a much shorter time than do the compound eyes alone.