Honeybees navigate using which combination of cues?

Honeybees navigate using which combination of cues?

• A. Magnetic fields only
• B. Sun position, polarized light, and spatial memory
• C. Stars, wind, and tides
• D. Odor cues and landmarks

Answer: (B)

Bees navigate with a sun-based compass and a memory of the surroundings. They use the sun’s position to determine direction, and they read the pattern of polarized light in the sky to extract directional information when the sun can’t be seen clearly. Along with this, they build spatial memory of familiar landmarks and routes around the hive, so they can recall where good flowers lie relative to their nest and return efficiently. This combination—the sun’s position, polarized light cues, and stored knowledge of landmarks and routes—gives bees a robust way to move between flowers and the hive, even under varying light conditions. While odors help identify flowers and landmarks aid orientation, the core system that ties direction and location together is the sun compass plus polarization cues plus spatial memory.

Bees navigate with a sun-based compass and a memory of the surroundings. They use the sun’s position to determine direction, and they read the pattern of polarized light in the sky to extract directional information when the sun can’t be seen clearly. Along with this, they build spatial memory of familiar landmarks and routes around the hive, so they can recall where good flowers lie relative to their nest and return efficiently. This combination—the sun’s position, polarized light cues, and stored knowledge of landmarks and routes—gives bees a robust way to move between flowers and the hive, even under varying light conditions. While odors help identify flowers and landmarks aid orientation, the core system that ties direction and location together is the sun compass plus polarization cues plus spatial memory.