Leucht, Thomas
Responses to light under varying magnetic conditions in the honeybee,Apis mellifica
Journal of Comparative Physiology A : Sensory, Neural and Behavioral Physiology, v154 n6 (198411): 865-870
http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/5654232807https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2FBF00610687?LI=true
"In the dance of honeybees the indication of direction to a food source can be influenced by magnetic and photic stimuli. We have tested the behaviour of dancing honeybees illuminated with white light under varying magnetic conditions. The bees respond to the light stimulus with a maximum deviation from the correct dancing direction when they dance parallel to the inclination of the earth's magnetic field (EMF). The response to light drops to zero with increasing deviation from this ‘zero-point’ direction (see also Martin and Lindauer 1977). The time of total indifference to light varies with the magnetic conditions. In the natural EMF the reaction to light becomes zero 20.3° (i.e. 1 h) after the bees have passed the zeropoint. In the compensated EMF this effect is delayed by 10°. The bees show nearly no reaction to light when the EMF is amplified to 2 Gauss.
The relative spectral sensitivity of dancing honey-bees was tested in the compensated EMF. It is 1:1.63:2.64 for green-, blue-, and UV-light, respectively."
