Navigation in honeybees is discussed against the background of the types of memories employed in the navigational task. Two questions are addressed. Do bees have goal-specific expectations, and when are novel routes travelled? Expectations are deduced from (1) context stimuli as determinants for local cue memories, (2) landmark-dependent path integration, (3) sequential learning of landmarks, and (4) motivation- and context-dependent memory retrieval. Novel routes are travelled under two conditions: (1) goal-cue-based piloting and (2) integration of simultaneously activated vector memories. Our data do not support the conclusion that memory integration in bees is organised by a cognitive map. The assumption of purely separate memories that are only retrieved according to the chain of events during navigational performance also appears to be inadequate. We favour the view that multiple memories are integrated using external and internal sources of information. Such configural memories lead to both specific expectations and novel routes.
In the field: an interview with Harald Wolf
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In our new Conversation, Harald Wolf talks about his fieldwork experiences working with desert ants in Tunisia to understand their navigation.
Propose a new Workshop
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Our Workshops bring together leading experts and early-career researchers from a range of scientific backgrounds. Applications are now open to propose Workshops for 2024, one of which will be held in a Global South country.
Julian Dow steps down and John Terblanche joins the JEB team
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After 15 years with the journal, Julian Dow from University of Glasgow, UK, is stepping down as a Monitoring Editor. We wish Julian all the best for the future and welcome John Terblanche, Stellenbosch University, South Africa, who is joining the team. Julian talks about his long association with The Company of Biologists and the journal and John tells us about his life and career in this News article.
The capture of crude oil droplets by filter feeders at high and low Reynolds numbers
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Researchers from the University of Montreal, Canada, reveal how tiny filter feeding barnacles and Daphnia entrap and consume minute droplets of crude oil, introducing the pollutant at the bottom of the food chain.
Patterns and processes in amphibious fish
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In their Review, Keegan Lutek, Cassandra Donatelli and Emily Standen discuss the biomechanics and neural control of terrestrial locomotion in amphibious fish. They explore how locomotor mode depends on body shape, physical constraints and phylogeny.
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