Page "Bee learning and communication" Paragraph 21

In 1975 Menzel published a seminal paper describing the morphology and spectral sensitivity of the honey bee eye.

He examined color coding the honey bee retina by using a technique to mark individual cells with a fluorescent dye and record from these cells as single units.

Such fine structure analysis allowed him to determine that there are three types of receptors in the honey bee eye: 1 ) UV receptors, 2 ) blue receptors, and 3 ) green receptors.

The three receptors are dominated by three rhodopsin-like pigments.

These pigments have maximal absorbance at wavelengths corresponding to 350 nm, 440 nm, and 540 nm.