Polarisation vision in the dark: green-sensitive photoreceptors in the nocturnal ball-rolling dung beetle Escarabaeus satyrus.

Many insects utilise the polarisation pattern of the sky to adjust their travelling directions. The extraction of directional information from this sky-wide cue is mediated by specialised photoreceptors located in the dorsal rim area (DRA). While this part of the eye is known to be sensitive to the ultraviolet, blue or green component of skylight, the latter has only been observed in insects active in dim light.

Spider dung beetles: coordinated cooperative transport without a predefined destination.

Cooperative transport allows for the transportation of items too large for the capacity of a single individual. Beyond humans, it is regularly employed by ants and social spiders where two or more individuals, with more or less coordinated movements, transport food to a known destination. In contrast to this, pairs of male and female dung beetles successfully transport brood balls to a location unknown to either party at the start of their common journey.

The effect of surface topography on the ball-rolling ability of Kheper lamarcki (Scarabaeidae).

The most effective way to avoid intense inter- and intra-specific competition at the dung source, and to increase the distance to the other competitors, is to follow a single straight bearing. While ball-rolling dung beetles manage to roll their dung balls along nearly perfect straight paths when traversing flat terrain, the paths that they take when traversing more complex (natural) terrain are not well understood. In this study, we investigate the effect of complex surface topographies on the ball-rolling ability of Kheper lamarcki.

A model of cue integration as vector summation in the insect brain.

Ball-rolling dung beetles are known to integrate multiple cues in order to facilitate their straight-line orientation behaviour. Recent work has suggested that orientation cues are integrated according to a vector sum, that is, compass cues are represented by vectors and summed to give a combined orientation estimate. Further, cue weight (vector magnitude) appears to be set according to cue reliability.

Erratum: Weighted cue integration for straight-line orientation.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.

Weighted cue integration for straight-line orientation.

Animals commonly integrate multiple sources of information to guide their behavior. Among insects, previous studies have suggested that the relative reliability of cues affects their weighting in behavior, but have not systematically explored how well alternative integration strategies can account for the observed directional choices. Here, we characterize the directional reliability of an ersatz sun at different elevations and wind at different speeds as guiding cues for a species of ball-rolling dung beetle.

The balbyter ant combines several navigational strategies to support homing when foraging in the close vicinity of its nest.

Many insects rely on path integration to define direct routes back to their nests. When shuttling hundreds of meters back and forth between a profitable foraging site and a nest, navigational errors accumulate unavoidably in this compass- and odometer-based system. In familiar terrain, terrestrial landmarks can be used to compensate for these errors and safely guide the insect back to its nest with pin-point precision.

Mechanisms of spectral orientation in a diurnal dung beetle.

Ball rolling dung beetles use a wide range of cues to steer themselves along a fixed bearing, including the spectral gradient of scattered skylight that spans the sky. Here, we define the spectral sensitivity of the diurnal dung beetle and use the information to explore the orientation performance under a range of spectral light combinations. We find that, when presented with spectrally diverse stimuli, the beetles primarily orient to the apparent brightness differences as perceived by their green photoreceptors.

The interplay of directional information provided by unpolarised and polarised light in the heading direction network of the diurnal dung beetle Kheper lamarcki.

The sun is the most prominent source of directional information in the heading direction network of the diurnal, ball-rolling dung beetle Kheper lamarcki. If this celestial body is occluded from the beetle's field of view, the distribution of the relative weight between the directional cues that remain shifts in favour of the celestial pattern of polarised light. In this study, we continue to explore the interplay of the sun and polarisation pattern as directional cues in the heading direction network of K.

Cold-induced anesthesia impairs path integration memory in dung beetles.

Path integration is a general mechanism used by many animals to maintain an updated record of their position in relation to a set reference point. To do this, they continually integrate direction and distance information into a memorized home vector. What remains unclear is how this vector is stored, maintained, and utilized for successful navigation.

The finely defined shift work schedule of dung beetles and their eye morphology.

In nature, nothing is wasted, not even waste. Dung, composed of metabolic trash and leftovers of food, is a high-quality resource and the object of fierce competition. Over 800 dung beetle species (Scarabaeinae) compete in the South African dung habitat and more than 100 species can colonize a single dung pat.

A unified platform to manage, share, and archive morphological and functional data in insect neuroscience.

Insect neuroscience generates vast amounts of highly diverse data, of which only a small fraction are findable, accessible and reusable. To promote an open data culture, we have therefore developed the InsectBrainDatabase (), a free online platform for insect neuroanatomical and functional data. The facilitates biological insight by enabling effective cross-species comparisons, by linking neural structure with function, and by serving as general information hub for insect neuroscience.

Light pollution forces a change in dung beetle orientation behavior.

Increasing global light pollution threatens the night-time darkness to which most animals are adapted. Light pollution can have detrimental effects on behavior, including by disrupting the journeys of migratory birds, sand hoppers, and moths. This is particularly concerning, since many night-active species rely on compass information in the sky, including the moon, the skylight polarization pattern, and the stars, to hold their course.

Compass Cue Integration and Its Relation to the Visual Ecology of Three Tribes of Ball-Rolling Dung Beetles.

To guide their characteristic straight-line orientation away from the dung pile, ball-rolling dung beetles steer according to directional information provided by celestial cues, which, among the most relevant are the sun and polarised skylight. Most studies regarding the use of celestial cues and their influence on the orientation system of the diurnal ball-rolling beetle have been performed on beetles of the tribe Scarabaeini living in open habitats. These beetles steer primarily according to the directional information provided by the sun.

Dorsal landmark navigation in a Neotropical nocturnal bee.

Bees, ants, and wasps are well known to visually navigate when traveling between their nests and foraging sites. When leaving their nest, landmarks in the vicinity are memorized and used upon return to locate the nest entrance. The Neotropical nocturnal sweat bee Megalopta genalis navigates under the forest canopy at light intensities ten times dimmer than starlight.

Insect Orientation: The Drosophila Wind Compass Pathway.

Wind can act as an external cue to control an animal's heading. A new study reveals the neural mechanisms behind the wind information pathway in the insect brain.

Author Correction: Rules for the Leg Coordination of Dung Beetle Ball Rolling Behaviour.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

A dung beetle that path integrates without the use of landmarks.

Unusual amongst dung beetles, Scarabaeus galenus digs a burrow that it provisions by making repeated trips to a nearby dung pile. Even more remarkable is that these beetles return home moving backwards, with a pellet of dung between their hind legs. Here, we explore the strategy that S.

Accelerated landings in stingless bees are triggered by visual threshold cues.

Most flying animals rely primarily on visual cues to coordinate and control their trajectory when landing. Studies of visually guided landing typically involve animals that decrease their speed before touchdown. Here, we investigate the control strategy of the stingless bee , which instead accelerates when landing on its narrow hive entrance.

How Dung Beetles Steer Straight.

Distant and predictable features in the environment make ideal compass cues to allow movement along a straight path. Ball-rolling dung beetles use a wide range of different signals in the day or night sky to steer themselves along a fixed bearing. These include the sun, the Milky Way, and the polarization pattern generated by the moon.

Rules for the Leg Coordination of Dung Beetle Ball Rolling Behaviour.

Dung beetles can perform a number of versatile behaviours, including walking and dung ball rolling. While different walking and running gaits of dung beetles have been described in previous literature, little is known about their ball rolling gaits. From behavioural experiments and video recordings of the beetle Scarabaeus (Kheper) lamarcki, we analysed and identified four underlying rules for leg coordination during ball rolling.

Accelerated landing in a stingless bee and its unexpected benefits for traffic congestion.

To land, flying animals must simultaneously reduce speed and control their path to the target. While the control of approach speed has been studied in many different animals, little is known about the effect of target size on landing, particularly for small targets that require precise trajectory control. To begin to explore this, we recorded the stingless bees landing on their natural hive entrance-a narrow wax tube built by the bees themselves.

The effect of step size on straight-line orientation.

Moving along a straight path is a surprisingly difficult task. This is because, with each ensuing step, noise is generated in the motor and sensory systems, causing the animal to deviate from its intended route. When relying solely on internal sensory information to correct for this noise, the directional error generated with each stride accumulates, ultimately leading to a curved path.