# evol: Megalopta genalis, the bee that flies in the dark with dorsal landmark navigation

<< People -- who get lost easily in the extraordinary darkness of a tropical forest -- have much to learn from a bee that can find its way home in conditions 10 times dimmer than starlight. >>

AA << reveal that sweat bees (Megalopta genalis), find their way home based on patterns in the canopy overhead using dorsal vision. >>️️

<< For a human observer, the most obvious visual cues in the forest at night are gaps in the canopy when we look straight up because the sky is much brighter than the forest below, (..) We see a quite complex pattern of criss-crossing branches, but the bees'-eye-view is much less complex. They see broad blobs of light that vary in shape and position. We knew that ants could use canopy patterns to navigate as they walk through the forest, and we wondered if maybe bees were doing the same thing. >> Eric Warrant.

Dorsal navigation found in a flying insect. Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. Jun 17, 2021. 

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/06/210617101221.htm

Sandra Chaib, Marie Dacke, et al. 

Dorsal Landmark Navigation in a Neotropical Nocturnal Bee.  doi: 10.2139/ ssrn.3805162. Mar 15, 2021.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3805162