Science & Mathematics

The Discovery of a Visual System - The Honeybee

by Adrian Horridge

Description

This book is the only account of what honeybees actually see. Bees detect some visual features such as edges and colours, but there is no sign that they reconstruct patterns or put together features to form objects. Bees detect motion but have no perception of what it is that moves, and certainly they do not recognize "things" by their shapes. Yet they clearly see well enough to fly and find food with a minute brain. Bee vision is therefore relevant to the construction of simple artificial visual systems, for example for mobile robots. The surprising conclusion is that bee vision is adapted to the recognition of places, not things. In this volume, Adrian Horridge also sets out the curious and contentious history of how bee vision came to be understood, with an account of a century of neglect of old experimental results, errors of interpretation, sharp disagreements, and failures of the scientific method. The design of the experiments and the methods of making inferences from observations are also critically examined, with the conclusion that scientists are often hesitant, imperfect and misleading, ignore the work of others, and fail to consider alternative explanations. The erratic path to understanding makes interesting reading for anyone with an interest in the workings of science but particularly those researching insect vision and invertebrate sensory systems.

More Information

Rights Information

Foreign rights available. We will positively consider translations of abridged versions of this title. If you wish to receive image and/or design files, please let us know at the beginning of the process and when making an offer. CABI reserves the right to charge an additional fee for such requests, which will be added to the overall fee, and to refuse such requests if the files are not available or for any other reason.

Trusted Partner
CABI (CAB International)

CABI (CAB International)

CABI (CAB International) is an international, non-profit body improving lives by providing information & scientific expertise to solve problems in agriculture & the environment.

View all titles

Bibliographic Information

  • Publisher CAB International
  • Publication Date April 2019
  • Orginal LanguageEnglish
  • ISBN/Identifier 9781789240894 / 1789240891
  • Publication Country or regionUnited Kingdom
  • FormatHardback
  • Primary Price 85 GBP
  • Pages256
  • ReadershipProfessional and Scholarly
  • Publish StatusPublished
  • Copyright Year2019
  • Dimensions244 X 172 mm
  • Reference Code4448

Subscribe to our

newsletter