Optomotor steering and flight control requires a specific sub-section of the compound eye in the hawkmoth, Manduca sexta

A comparison of odor plume-tracking behavior of walking and flying insects in different turbulent environments

Many animals locate food, mates and territories by following plumes of attractive odors. There are clear differences in the structure of this plume-tracking behavior depending on whether an animal is flying, swimming, walking or crawling. These differences could arise from different control rules used by the central nervous system during these different modes of locomotion or one set of rules interacting with the different environments while walking on the surface versus flying or swimming. Flow speeds and turbulence that characterize the environments where walking and flying insects track plumes may alter the structure of odor plumes in an environment-specific way that results in the same control rules generating behaviors that appear quite different. We tested these ideas by challenging walking male cockroaches, Periplaneta americana, and flying male moths, Manduca sexta, to track plumes of their species' sex pheromones in low wind speeds characteristic of cockroach experimental environments, higher wind speeds characteristic of moth experimental environments, and conditions ranging from low to high turbulence. Introducing a turbulence-generating structure into the flow significantly improved the flying plume tracker's ability to locate the odor source, and changed the structure of the behavior of both flying and walking plume trackers. Our results support the idea that plume trackers moving slowly along the substrate may use the spatial distribution of odor, while faster moving flying plume trackers may use the timing of odor encounters to steer to locate the source.

Optic flow in the natural habitats of zebrafish supports spatial biases in visual self-motion estimation

Animals benefit from knowing if and how they are moving. Across the animal kingdom, sensory information in the form of optic flow over the visual field is used to estimate self-motion. However, different species exhibit strong spatial biases in how they use optic flow. Here, we show computationally that noisy natural environments favor visual systems that extract spatially biased samples of optic flow when estimating self-motion. The performance associated with these biases, however, depends on interactions between the environment and the animal's brain and behavior. Using the larval zebrafish as a model, we recorded natural optic flow associated with swimming trajectories in the animal's habitat with an omnidirectional camera mounted on a mechanical arm. An analysis of these flow fields suggests that lateral regions of the lower visual field are most informative about swimming speed. This pattern is consistent with the recent findings that zebrafish optomotor responses are preferentially driven by optic flow in the lateral lower visual field, which we extend with behavioral results from a high-resolution spherical arena. Spatial biases in optic-flow sampling are likely pervasive because they are an effective strategy for determining self-motion in noisy natural environments.

Wind and route choice affect performance of bees flying above versus within a cluttered obstacle field

Bees flying through natural landscapes frequently encounter physical challenges, such as wind and cluttered vegetation, but the influence of these factors on flight performance remains unknown. We analyzed 548 videos of wild-caught honeybees (Apis mellifera) flying through an enclosure containing a field of vertical obstacles that bees could choose to fly within (through open corridors, without maneuvering) or above. We varied obstacle field height and wind condition (still, headwinds or tailwinds), and examined how these factors affected bees’ flight altitude, ground speed, and side-to-side casting motions (lateral excursions). When obstacle fields were short, bees flew at altitudes near the midpoint between the tunnel floor and ceiling. When obstacle fields approached or exceeded this midpoint, bees tended to increase their altitude, but they did not always avoid flying through obstacles, despite having the freedom to do so. Bees that flew above the obstacles exhibited 40% faster ground speeds and 36% larger lateral excursions than bees that flew within the obstacle fields. Wind did not affect flight altitude, but bees flew 12–19% faster in tailwinds, and their lateral excursions were 19% larger when flying in headwinds or tailwinds, as compared to still air. Our results show that bees flying through complex environments display flexibility in their route choices (i.e., flying above obstacles in some trials and through them in others), which affects their overall flight performance. Similar choices in natural landscapes could have broad implications for foraging efficiency, pollination, and mortality in wild bees.

Natural image statistics in the dorsal and ventral visual field match a switch in flight behaviour of a hawkmoth

Many animals use visual cues to navigate their environment. To encode the large input ranges of natural signals optimally, their sensory systems have adapted to the stimulus statistics experienced in their natural habitats¹. A striking example, shared across animal phyla, is the retinal tuning to the relative abundance of blue light from the sky, and green light from the ground, evident in the frequency of each photoreceptor type in the two retinal hemispheres². By adhering only to specific regions of the visual field that contain the relevant information, as for the high-acuity dorsal regions in the eyes of male flies chasing females³, the neural investment can be further reduced. Regionalisation can even lead to activation of the appropriate visual pathway by target location, rather than by stimulus features. This has been shown in fruit flies, which increase their landing attempts when an expanding disc is presented in their frontal visual field, while lateral presentation increases obstacle avoidance responses⁴. We here report a similar switch in behavioural responses for extended visual scenes. Using a free-flight paradigm, we show that the hummingbird hawkmoth (Macroglossum stellatarum) responds with flight-control adjustments to translational optic-flow cues exclusively in their ventral and lateral visual fields, while identical stimuli presented dorsally elicit a novel directional flight response. This response split is predicted by our quantitative imaging data from natural visual scenes in a variety of habitats, which demonstrate higher magnitudes of translational optic flow in the ventral hemisphere, and the opposite distribution for contrast edges containing directional information.

Wind and obstacle motion affect honeybee flight strategies in cluttered environments

Bees often forage in habitats with cluttered vegetation and unpredictable winds. Navigating obstacles in wind presents a challenge that may be exacerbated by wind-induced motions of vegetation. Although wind-blown vegetation is common in natural habitats, we know little about how the strategies of bees for flying through clutter are affected by obstacle motion and wind. We filmed honeybees Apis mellifera flying through obstacles in a flight tunnel with still air, headwinds or tailwinds. We tested how their ground speeds and centering behavior (trajectory relative to the midline between obstacles) changed when obstacles were moving versus stationary, and how their approach strategies affected flight outcome (successful transit versus collision). We found that obstacle motion affects ground speed: bees flew slower when approaching moving versus stationary obstacles in still air but tended to fly faster when approaching moving obstacles in headwinds or tailwinds. Bees in still air reduced their chances of colliding with obstacles (whether moving or stationary) by reducing ground speed, whereas flight outcomes in wind were not associated with ground speed, but rather with improvement in centering behavior during the approach. We hypothesize that in challenging flight situations (e.g. navigating moving obstacles in wind), bees may speed up to reduce the number of wing collisions that occur if they pass too close to an obstacle. Our results show that wind and obstacle motion can interact to affect flight strategies in unexpected ways, suggesting that wind-blown vegetation may have important effects on foraging behaviors and flight performance of bees in natural habitats.

Ventral motion parallax enhances fruit fly steering to visual sideslip

Flies and other insects use incoherent motion (parallax) to the front and sides to measure distances and identify obstacles during translation. Although additional depth information could be drawn from below, there is no experimental proof that they use it. The finding that blowflies encode motion disparities in their ventral visual fields suggests this may be an important region for depth information. We used a virtual flight arena to measure fruit fly responses to optic flow. The stimuli appeared below (n = 51) or above the fly (n = 44), at different speeds, with or without parallax cues. Dorsal parallax does not affect responses, and similar motion disparities in rotation have no effect anywhere in the visual field. But responses to strong ventral sideslip (206° s⁻¹) change drastically depending on the presence or absence of parallax. Ventral parallax could help resolve ambiguities in cluttered motion fields, and enhance corrective responses to nearby objects.

Fruit flies increase attention to their frontal visual field during fast forward optic flow

Fruit flies must compensate for the limited light gathered by the tiny facets of their eyes, and image motion during flight lowers light catch even further. Motion blur is especially problematic in fast regions of the visual field, perpendicular to forward motion, but flow fields also contain slower regions, less affected by blur. To test whether fruit flies shift their attention to predictably slower regions of a flow field, we placed flies in an arena simulating forward flight and measured responses to turning cues in different visual areas. We find that during fast forward flight, fruit flies respond more strongly to turning cues presented directly in front, and less strongly to cues presented to the sides, supporting the hypothesis that flying fruit flies shift visual attention to slower moving regions less affected by motion blur.

Fuelling on the wing: sensory ecology of hawkmoth foraging

Hawkmoths (Lepidoptera, Sphingidae) comprise around 1500 species, most of which forage on nectar from flowers in their adult stage, usually while hovering in front of the flower. The majority of species have a nocturnal lifestyle and are important nocturnal pollinators, but some species have turned to a diurnal lifestyle. Hawkmoths use visual and olfactory cues including CO₂ and humidity to detect and recognise rewarding flowers; they find the nectary in the flowers by means of mechanoreceptors on the proboscis and vision, evaluate it with gustatory receptors on the proboscis, and control their hovering flight position using antennal mechanoreception and vision. Here, we review what is presently known about the sensory organs and sensory-guided behaviour that control feeding behaviour of this fascinating pollinator taxon. We also suggest that more experiments on hawkmoth behaviour in natural settings are needed to fully appreciate their sensory capabilities.

The role of lateral optic flow cues in hawkmoth flight control

Flying animals require sensory feedback on changes of their body position, as well as on their distance to nearby objects. The apparent image motion, or optic flow, which is generated as animals move through the air, can provide this information. Flight tunnel experiments have been crucial for our understanding of how insects use this optic flow for flight control in confined spaces. However, previous work mainly focused on species from two insect orders: Hymenoptera and Diptera. We therefore set out to investigate if the previously described control strategies to navigate enclosed environments are also used by insects with a different optical system, flight kinematics and phylogenetic background. We tested the role of lateral visual cues for forward flight control in the hummingbird hawkmoth Macroglossum stellatarum (Sphingidae, Lepidoptera), which possess superposition compound eyes, and have the ability to hover in addition to their fast forward flight capacities. Our results show that hawkmoths use a similar strategy for lateral position control as bees and flies in balancing the magnitude of translational optic flow perceived in both eyes. However, the control of lateral optic flow on flight speed in hawkmoths differed from that in bees and flies. Moreover, hawkmoths showed individually attributable differences in position and speed control when the presented optic flow was unbalanced.