Can bees see colors Can bees see colors inquiryinquiry

What is the What is the adaptive adaptive

advantage of advantage of color vision?color vision?

•Bees cannot see blueBees cannot see blue•Bees cannot see greenBees cannot see green•Bees cannot see yellowBees cannot see yellow•Bees cannot see redBees cannot see red

HypothesesHypotheses

ProtocolProtocol• Place a patchwork of colored Place a patchwork of colored

squares. Cover the squares with a squares. Cover the squares with a glass plate. Place a dish of glass plate. Place a dish of unscented sugar syrup (25%) on unscented sugar syrup (25%) on one color. Place empty dishes on one color. Place empty dishes on the other squares. After bees the other squares. After bees regularly visit the syrup laden dish, regularly visit the syrup laden dish, rearrange the colored squares and rearrange the colored squares and place empty dishes on each square.place empty dishes on each square.

Data collectionData collection• Before collecting data, clean the glass Before collecting data, clean the glass

plate and all dishes to be certain that plate and all dishes to be certain that scent is not a factorscent is not a factor

• Return the patchwork grid and empty Return the patchwork grid and empty dishes to the original locationdishes to the original location

• Count the bees that land on each Count the bees that land on each colored square for 10 minutescolored square for 10 minutes

• Have students repeat the experiment Have students repeat the experiment 3 for each color they want to test3 for each color they want to test

Reporting findingsReporting findings• Plot results for each trial as a Plot results for each trial as a

histogramhistogram• Ask students what the results Ask students what the results

suggest about their hypothesissuggest about their hypothesis• Encourage students to speculate Encourage students to speculate

about how honey bees might about how honey bees might benefit from color visionbenefit from color vision

ConclusionsConclusions• Bees have color visionBees have color vision• Bees can see green, blue and yellowBees can see green, blue and yellow• Bees cannot distinguish red from Bees cannot distinguish red from

blackblack• This experiment will not show This experiment will not show

another important aspect of bee another important aspect of bee vision – that bees can see ultravioletvision – that bees can see ultraviolet

Humans Humans cannot see cannot see ultravioletultraviolet

Bees can see Bees can see ultraviolet, ultraviolet, but cannot but cannot

see redsee red