Color Vision Honey Bees: Phenomena and Physiological Mechanisms

Abstract

Colors are meaningful signals for honey bees. The information value originates from the phylogenetic experience of the species and the ontogenetic experience of each individual with significant objects in its world such as flowers and the immediate surroundings of the hive entrance. The historical controversy concerning color vision in bees arose between the young Karl von Frisch and the physiologist C. von Hess (von Frisch 1914; von Hess 1913) from a misunderstanding of the context specificity of color vision. Von Frisch demonstrated that bees see object colors as a visual quality different from grey shades in the behavioral context of feeding and homing, whilst von Hess showed that bees are color blind in their escape runs towards the light. Von Hess incorrectly generalized that bees are color blind in all behavioral contexts, and von Frisch did not realize that color vision in bees may be limited to certain behaviors.