Drinking on the wing : water collection in polarotactic horseflies

Cerkvenik, Uroš (author), Belušič, Gregor (author)

Many insects detect water bodies by observing the linearly polarised light which is reflected from the water surface. Polarotactic horseflies exhibit acrobatic manoeuvres above the water and are able to plunge on its surface, collect a droplet and fly away. This behaviour is extremely fast and has not yet been analysed. We recorded the fight patterns and kinematics of drinking horseflies using a pair of high-speed cameras. The animals of both sexes are attracted to water puddles where they make short, millisecond pitstops to collect a droplet of water that is then presumably drank “on the wing”. Before the collection, the flies perform several low-altitude flybys above the puddle. After a few passes, the fly suddenly reverses its body orientation, decelerates, briefly touches the water surface and immediately flies away, usually with a droplet carried between its front legs. During the approach fight, the horseflies fly low but do not show any angular preference. Thus, they view the reflections from the sky, sun, or vegetation with a wide band of ventral ommatidia. Polarotaxis in drinking horseflies is a very robust visually guided behaviour, which operates at a broad range of intensities and various spectral compositions of reflected light.

• Language: English
• Keywords: polarotaxis, water drinking, high-speed videography, horseflies, polarisation vision
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: BF - Biotechnical Faculty
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2023
• Number of pages: Str. 943–954
• Numbering: Vol. 209, iss. 6
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-152543
• UDC: 57
• ISSN on article: 0340-7594
• DOI: 10.1007/s00359-023-01657-3
• COBISS.SI-ID: 159698947
• Publication date in RUL: 27.11.2023

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Journal of comparative physiology. A, Sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology
• Shortened title: J. comp. physiol., A
• Publisher: Springer Nature
• ISSN: 0340-7594
• COBISS.SI-ID: 25723392

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: polarotaksa, pitje vode, hitra videografija, obadi, polarizacijski vid