Lunar orientation in a beetle
Lunar orientation in a beetle
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DOI：
10.1098/rspb.2003.2594
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发表时间：
2004-02-22
影响因子：
4.7
通讯作者：
Warrant, EJ
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Dacke, M;Byrne, MJ;Warrant, EJ
许多动物利用太阳的偏振模式来定位，但赞比西亚南屎壳郎是迄今为止已知的唯一一种利用月光下天空中微弱一百万倍的偏振模式来定位的动物。我们展示了月亮和夜间偏振光模式的相对作用。我们发现，人为地改变月亮的位置，或者在甲虫的视野中隐藏月亮的圆盘，通常不会影响它的定向性能。因此，我们得出结论，月球并不是定位的主要线索。有效的线索是在月球周围形成的偏振模式，这是更可靠的定位。背眼两个光感受器的偏振敏感度比分别为7.7和12.9，与白天航海者的记录值相似。这些结果与早期的结果一致，表明白天和夜间昆虫对偏振天窗的检测和分析是相似的。
Many animals use the sun's polarization pattern to orientate, but the dung beetle Scarabaeus zambesianus is the only animal so far known to orientate using the million times dimmer polarization pattern of the moonlit sky. We demonstrate the relative roles of the moon and the nocturnal polarized-light pattern for orientation. We find that artificially changing the position of the moon, or hiding the moon's disc from the beetle's field of view, generally did not influence its orientation performance. We thus conclude that the moon does not serve as the primary cue for orientation. The effective cue is the polarization pattern formed around the moon, which is more reliable for orientation. Polarization sensitivity ratios in two photoreceptors in the dorsal eye were found to be 7.7 and 12.9, similar to values recorded in diurnal navigators. These results agree with earlier results suggesting that the detection and analysis of polarized skylight is similar in diurnal and nocturnal insects.