A Deep Learning Biomimetic Milky Way Compass.

Moving in straight lines is a behaviour that enables organisms to search for food, move away from threats, and ultimately seek suitable environments in which to survive and reproduce. This study explores a vision-based technique for detecting a change in heading direction using the Milky Way (MW), one of the navigational cues that are known to be used by night-active insects. An algorithm is proposed that combines the YOLOv8m-seg model and normalised second central moments to calculate the MW orientation angle. This method addresses many likely scenarios where segmentation of the MW from the background by image thresholding or edge detection is not applicable, such as when the moon is substantial or when anthropogenic light is present. The proposed YOLOv8m-seg model achieves a segment mAP@0.5 of 84.7% on the validation dataset using our own training dataset of MW images. To explore its potential role in autonomous system applications, we compare night sky imagery and GPS heading data from a field trial in rural South Australia. The comparison results show that for short-term navigation, the segmented MW image can be used as a reliable orientation cue. There is a difference of roughly 5-10° between the proposed method and GT as the path involves left or right 90° turns at certain locations.

Computer Vision Techniques Demonstrate Robust Orientation Measurement of the Milky Way Despite Image Motion.

Many species rely on celestial cues as a reliable guide for maintaining heading while navigating. In this paper, we propose a method that extracts the Milky Way (MW) shape as an orientation cue in low-light scenarios. We also tested the method on both real and synthetic images and demonstrate that the performance of the method appears to be accurate and reliable to motion blur that might be caused by rotational vibration and stabilisation artefacts. The technique presented achieves an angular accuracy between a minimum of 0.00° and a maximum 0.08° for real night sky images, and between a minimum of 0.22° and a maximum 1.61° for synthetic images. The imaging of the MW is largely unaffected by blur. We speculate that the use of the MW as an orientation cue has evolved because, unlike individual stars, it is resilient to motion blur caused by locomotion.

Spatial resolution and optical sensitivity in the compound eyes of two common European wasps, Vespula germanica and Vespula vulgaris.

Vespula germanica and Vespula vulgaris are two common European wasps that have ecological and economic importance as a result of their artificial introduction into many different countries and environments. Their success has undoubtedly been aided by their capacity for visually guided hunting, foraging, learning and using visual cues in the context of homing and navigation. However, the visual systems of V. germanica and V. vulgaris have not received any deep attention. We used electrophysiology, together with optical and anatomical techniques, to measure the spatial resolution and optical sensitivity of the compound eyes of both species. We found that both wasps have high anatomical spatial resolution with narrow interommatidial angles (Δϕ between 1.0 and 1.5 deg) and a distinct acute zone in the fronto-ventral part of the eye. These narrow interommatidial angles are matched to photoreceptors having narrow angular sensitivities (acute zone acceptance angles Δρ below 1.3 deg), indicating eyes of high spatial resolution that are well suited to their ecological needs. Additionally, we found that both species possess an optical sensitivity that is typical of other day-flying hymenopterans.

Lidar as a potential tool for monitoring migratory insects.

The seasonal migrations of insects involve a substantial displacement of biomass with significant ecological and economic consequences for regions of departure and arrival. Remote sensors have played a pivotal role in revealing the magnitude and general direction of bioflows above 150 m. Nevertheless, the takeoff and descent activity of insects below this height is poorly understood. Our lidar observations elucidate the low-height dusk movements and detailed information of insects in southern Sweden from May to July, during the yearly northward migration period. Importantly, by filtering out moths from other insects based on optical information and wingbeat frequency, we have introduced a promising new method to monitor the flight activities of nocturnal moths near the ground, many of which participate in migration through the area. Lidar thus holds the potential to enhance the scientific understanding of insect migratory behavior and improve pest control strategies.

One hundred years of excellence: the top one hundred authors of the Journal of Comparative Physiology A.

The Journal of Comparative Physiology A is the premier peer-reviewed scientific journal in comparative physiology, in particular sensory physiology, neurophysiology, and neuroethology. Founded in 1924 by Karl von Frisch and Alfred Kühn, it celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2024. During these 100 years, many of the landmark achievements in these disciplines were published in this journal. To commemorate these accomplishments, we have compiled a list of the Top 100 Authors over these 100 years, representing approximately 1% of all its authors. To select these individuals, three performance criteria were applied: number of publications, total number of citations attracted by these articles, and mean citation rate of the papers published by each author. The resulting list of the Top 100 Authors provides a fascinating insight into the history of the disciplines covered by the Journal of Comparative Physiology A and into the academic careers of many of their leading representatives.

A formative journal for a formative career: a personal recollection of how JCPA has inspired and guided my research life.

A fateful decision as a 15-year-old high school student, and good advice from a distinguished professor of zoology, were the catalysts that not only decided my entire career but also led me to the Journal of Comparative Physiology A, and to the myriad biological wonders that were held within its covers. In my celebration of JCPA, I look back on the formative years of my career in Australia, and the crucial role that the journal played in shaping my emerging research interests, and ultimately my entire life.

Cephalopod versus vertebrate eyes.

Vertebrates and cephalopods are the two major animal groups that view the world through sophisticated camera-type eyes. There are of course exceptions: nautiloid cephalopods have more simply built pinhole eyes. Excellent camera type eyes are also found in other animals, such as some spider groups, a few snails, and certain marine worms, but the vast majority of large camera-type eyes belong to cephalopods and vertebrates. Vertebrates and cephalopods also devote major parts of their brains to the processing of visual information. Obviously, there are differences in eye performance among cephalopods and vertebrates, but there are no major subgroups where vision seems to have low priority. The similarity in eye geometry is striking, especially between fish and coleoid cephalopods, with a hemispherical retina centred around a spherical lens. Do these similarities mean that vertebrate and cephalopod eyes are equally good? Comparing the eyes of vertebrates and cephalopods reveals many fundamental differences with surprisingly small consequences for vision, but also one difference that means that cephalopods and vertebrates do not share the same visual world.

Measures and models of visual acuity in epipelagic and mesopelagic teleosts and elasmobranchs.

Eyes in low-light environments typically must balance sensitivity and spatial resolution. Vertebrate eyes with large "pixels" (e.g., retinal ganglion cells with inputs from many photoreceptors) will be sensitive but provide coarse vision. Small pixels can render finer detail, but each pixel will gather less light, and thus have poor signal relative-to-noise, leading to lower contrast sensitivity. This balance is particularly critical in oceanic species at mesopelagic depths (200-1000 m) because they experience low light and live in a medium that significantly attenuates contrast. Depending on the spatial frequency and inherent contrast of a pattern being viewed, the viewer's pupil size and temporal resolution, and the ambient light level and water clarity, a visual acuity exists that maximizes the distance at which the pattern can be discerned. We develop a model that predicts this acuity for common conditions in the open ocean, and compare it to visual acuity in marine teleost fishes and elasmobranchs found at various depths in productive and oligotrophic waters. Visual acuity in epipelagic and upper mesopelagic species aligned well with model predictions, but species at lower mesopelagic depths (> 600 m) had far higher measured acuities than predicted. This is consistent with the prediction that animals found at lower mesopelagic depths operate in a visual world consisting primarily of bioluminescent point sources, where high visual acuity helps localize targets of this kind. Overall, the results suggest that visual acuity in oceanic fish and elasmobranchs is under depth-dependent selection for detecting either extended patterns or point sources.

The Presidential Symposium at the International Congress of Neuroethology 2022 in Lisbon, Portugal.

In this special issue of articles from leading neuroethologists-all of whom gave outstanding presentations within the Presidential Symposium of the 2022 International Congress of Neuroethology held in Lisbon, Portugal-we learn about the role of cryptochrome molecules in the magnetic sense of animals, how honeybees construct their honeycombs, why fish eyes are built the way they are in species from different depths, how archerfish intercept their newly downed prey with a swift muscular curving of the body (known as a C-start) and how birds process optic flow information to control flight. Each contribution showcases how nervous systems have evolved to control behaviour, the raison d'être of neuroethology.

Dim-light colour vision in the facultatively nocturnal Asian giant honeybee, Apis dorsata.

We discovered nocturnal colour vision in the Asian giant honeybee Apis dorsata-a facultatively nocturnal species-at mesopic light intensities, down to half-moon light levels (approx. 10-2 cd m-2). The visual threshold of nocturnality aligns with their reported nocturnal activity down to the same light levels. Nocturnal colour vision in A. dorsata is interesting because, despite being primarily diurnal, its colour vision capabilities extend into dim light, while the 'model' European honeybee Apis mellifera is reported to be colour-blind at twilight. By employing behavioural experiments with naturally nesting A. dorsata colonies, we show discrimination of the trained colour from other stimuli during the day, and significantly, even at night. Nocturnal colour vision in bees has so far only been reported in the obligately nocturnal carpenter bee Xylocopa tranquebarica. The discovery of colour vision in these two bee species, despite differences in the extent of their nocturnality and the limitations of their apposition compound eye optics, opens avenues for future studies on visual adaptations for dim-light colour vision, their role in pollination of flowers at night, and the effect of light pollution on nocturnal activity in A. dorsata, a ubiquitous pollinator in natural, agricultural and urban habitats in the Asian tropics and sub-tropics.

Parallel motion vision pathways in the brain of a tropical bee.

Spatial orientation is a prerequisite for most behaviors. In insects, the underlying neural computations take place in the central complex (CX), the brain's navigational center. In this region different streams of sensory information converge to enable context-dependent navigational decisions. Accordingly, a variety of CX input neurons deliver information about different navigation-relevant cues. In bees, direction encoding polarized light signals converge with translational optic flow signals that are suited to encode the flight speed of the animals. The continuous integration of speed and directions in the CX can be used to generate a vector memory of the bee's current position in space in relation to its nest, i.e., perform path integration. This process depends on specific, complex features of the optic flow encoding CX input neurons, but it is unknown how this information is derived from the visual periphery. Here, we thus aimed at gaining insight into how simple motion signals are reshaped upstream of the speed encoding CX input neurons to generate their complex features. Using electrophysiology and anatomical analyses of the halictic bees Megalopta genalis and Megalopta centralis, we identified a wide range of motion-sensitive neurons connecting the optic lobes with the central brain. While most neurons formed pathways with characteristics incompatible with CX speed neurons, we showed that one group of lobula projection neurons possess some physiological and anatomical features required to generate the visual responses of CX optic-flow encoding neurons. However, as these neurons cannot explain all features of CX speed cells, local interneurons of the central brain or alternative input cells from the optic lobe are additionally required to construct inputs with sufficient complexity to deliver speed signals suited for path integration in bees.

Contact chemoreception, magnetic maps, thermoregulation by a superorganism, and, thanks to Einstein, an all-time record: the Editors' and Readers' Choice Awards 2023.

During the 99 years of its history, the Journal of Comparative Physiology A has published many of the most influential papers in comparative physiology and related disciplines. To celebrate this achievement of the journal's authors, annual Editors' Choice Awards and Readers' Choice Awards are presented. The winners of the 2023 Editors' Choice Awards are 'Contact chemoreception in multi­modal sensing of prey by Octopus' by Buresch et al. (J Comp Physiol A 208:435-442, 2022) in the Original Paper category; and 'Magnetic maps in animal navigation' by Lohmann et al. (J Comp Physiol A 208:41-67, 2022) in the Review/Review-History Article category. The winners of the 2023 Readers' Choice Awards are 'Coping with the cold and fighting the heat: thermal homeostasis of a superorganism, the honeybee colony' by Stabentheiner et al. (J Comp Physiol A 207:337-351; 2021) in the Original Paper category; and 'Einstein, von Frisch and the honeybee: a historical letter comes to light' by Dyer et al. (J Comp Physiol A 207:449-456, 2021) in the Review/Review-History category.

Visual detection threshold in the echolocating Daubenton's bat (Myotis daubentonii).

All bats possess eyes that are of adaptive value. Echolocating bats have retinae dominated by rod photoreceptors and use dim light vision for navigation, and in rare cases for hunting. However, the visual detection threshold of insectivorous echolocating bats remains unknown. Here, we determined this threshold for the vespertilionid bat Myotis daubentonii. We show that for a green luminous target, M. daubentonii has a visual luminance threshold of 3.2(±0.9)×10-4 cd m-2, an intensity corresponding to the luminance of an open cloudless terrestrial habitat on a starlit night. Our results show that echolocating bats have good visual sensitivity, allowing them to see during their active periods. Together with previous results showing that M. daubentonii has poor visual acuity (∼0.6 cycles deg-1), this suggests that echolocating bats do not use vision to hunt but rather to orient themselves.

Camera-based automated monitoring of flying insects in the wild (Camfi). II. flight behaviour and long-term population monitoring of migratory Bogong moths in Alpine Australia.

Introduction: The Bogong moth Agrotis infusa is well known for its remarkable annual round-trip migration from its breeding grounds across eastern and southern Australia to its aestivation sites in the Australian Alps, to which it provides an important annual influx of nutrients. Over recent years, we have benefited from a growing understanding of the navigational abilities of the Bogong moth. Meanwhile, the population of Bogong moths has been shrinking. Recently, the ecologically and culturally important Bogong moth was listed as endangered by the IUCN Red List, and the establishment of a program for long-term monitoring of its population has been identified as critical for its conservation. Methods: Here, we present the results of two years of monitoring of the Bogong moth population in the Australian Alps using recently developed methods for automated wildlife-camera monitoring of flying insects, named Camfi. While in the Alps, some moths emerge from the caves in the evening to undertake seemingly random flights, filling the air with densities in the dozens per cubic metre. The purpose of these flights is unknown, but they may serve an important role in Bogong moth navigation. Results: We found that these evening flights occur throughout summer and are modulated by daily weather factors. We present a simple heuristic model of the arrival to and departure from aestivation sites by Bogong moths, and confirm results obtained from fox-scat surveys which found that aestivating Bogong moths occupy higher elevations as the summer progresses. Moreover, by placing cameras along two elevational transects below the summit of Mt. Kosciuszko, we found that evening flights were not random, but were systematically oriented in directions relative to the azimuth of the summit of the mountain. Finally, we present the first recorded observations of the impact of bushfire smoke on aestivating Bogong moths - a dramatic reduction in the size of a cluster of aestivating Bogong moths during the fire, and evidence of a large departure from the fire-affected area the day after the fire. Discussion: Our results highlight the challenges of monitoring Bogong moths in the wild and support the continued use of automated camera-based methods for that purpose.

Camera-based automated monitoring of flying insects (Camfi). I. Field and computational methods.

The ability to measure flying insect activity and abundance is important for ecologists, conservationists and agronomists alike. However, existing methods are laborious and produce data with low temporal resolution (e.g. trapping and direct observation), or are expensive, technically complex, and require vehicle access to field sites (e.g. radar and lidar entomology). We propose a method called "Camfi" for long-term non-invasive population monitoring and high-throughput behavioural observation of low-flying insects using images and videos obtained from wildlife cameras, which are inexpensive and simple to operate. To facilitate very large monitoring programs, we have developed and implemented a tool for automatic detection and annotation of flying insect targets in still images or video clips based on the popular Mask R-CNN framework. This tool can be trained to detect and annotate insects in a few hours, taking advantage of transfer learning. Our method will prove invaluable for ongoing efforts to understand the behaviour and ecology of declining insect populations and could also be applied to agronomy. The method is particularly suited to studies of low-flying insects in remote areas, and is suitable for very large-scale monitoring programs, or programs with relatively low budgets.

Adaptive migratory orientation of an invasive pest on a new continent.

Many species of insects undertake long-range, seasonally reversed migrations, displaying sophisticated orientation behaviors to optimize their migratory trajectories. However, when invasive insects arrive in new biogeographical regions, it is unclear if migrants retain (or how quickly they regain) ancestral migratory traits, such as seasonally preferred flight headings. Here we present behavioral evidence that an invasive migratory pest, the fall armyworm moth (Spodoptera frugiperda), a native of the Americas, exhibited locally adaptive migratory orientation less than three years after arriving on a new continent. Specimens collected from China showed flight orientations directed north-northwest in spring and southwest in autumn, and this would promote seasonal forward and return migrations in East Asia. We also show that the driver of the seasonal switch in orientation direction is photoperiod. Our results thus provide a clear example of an invasive insect that has rapidly exhibited adaptive migratory behaviors, either inherited or newly evolved, in a completely alien environment.

Colour vision in nocturnal insects.

The ability to see colour at night is known only from a handful of animals. First discovered in the elephant hawk moth Deilephila elpenor, nocturnal colour vision is now known from two other species of hawk moths, a single species of carpenter bee, a nocturnal gecko and two species of anurans. The reason for this rarity-particularly in vertebrates-is the immense challenge of achieving a sufficient visual signal-to-noise ratio to support colour discrimination in dim light. Although no less challenging for nocturnal insects, unique optical and neural adaptations permit reliable colour vision and colour constancy even in starlight. Using the well-studied Deilephila elpenor, we describe the visual light environment at night, the visual challenges that this environment imposes and the adaptations that have evolved to overcome them. We also explain the advantages of colour vision for nocturnal insects and its usefulness in discriminating night-opening flowers. Colour vision is probably widespread in nocturnal insects, particularly pollinators, where it is likely crucial for nocturnal pollination. This relatively poorly understood but vital ecosystem service is threatened from increasingly abundant and spectrally abnormal sources of anthropogenic light pollution, which can disrupt colour vision and thus the discrimination and pollination of flowers. This article is part of the theme issue 'Understanding colour vision: molecular, physiological, neuronal and behavioural studies in arthropods'.

Defensive shimmering responses in Apis dorsata are triggered by dark stimuli moving against a bright background.

Giant honeybees, including the open-nesting Asian giant honeybee Apis dorsata, display a spectacular collective defence behaviour - known as 'shimmering' - against predators, which is characterised by travelling waves generated by individual bees flipping their abdomens in a coordinated and sequential manner across the bee curtain. We examined whether shimmering is visually mediated by presenting moving stimuli of varying sizes and contrasts to the background (dark or light) in bright and dim ambient light conditions. Shimmering was strongest under bright ambient light, and its strength declined under dim light in this facultatively nocturnal bee. Apis dorsata shimmered only when presented with the darkest stimulus against a light background, but not when this condition was reversed (light stimulus against dark background). This response did not attenuate with repeated exposure to the stimuli, suggesting that shimmering behaviour does not undergo habituation. We suggest that this is an effective anti-predator strategy in open-nesting A. dorsata colonies which are exposed to high ambient light, as flying predators are more easily detected when they appear as dark moving objects against a bright sky. Moreover, the stimulus detection threshold (smallest visual angular size) is much smaller in this anti-predatory context (1.6-3.4 deg) than in the context of foraging (5.7 deg), indicating that ecological context affects the visual detection threshold.

Potential for identification of wild night-flying moths by remote infrared microscopy.

There are hundreds of thousands of moth species with crucial ecological roles that are often obscured by their nocturnal lifestyles. The pigmentation and appearance of moths are dominated by cryptic diffuse shades of brown. In this study, 82 specimens representing 26 moth species were analysed using infrared polarimetric hyperspectral imaging in the range of 0.95-2.5 µm. Contrary to previous studies, we demonstrate that since infrared light does not resolve the surface roughness, wings appear glossy and specular at longer wavelengths. Such properties provide unique reflectance spectra between species. The reflectance of the majority of our species could be explained by comprehensive models, and a complete parametrization of the spectral, polarimetric and angular optical properties was reduced to just 11 parameters with physical units. These parameters are complementary and, compared with the within-species variation, were significantly distinct between species. Counterintuitively to the aperture-limited resolution criterion, we could deduce microscopic features along the surface from their infrared properties. These features were confirmed by electron microscopy. Finally, we show how our findings could greatly enhance opportunities for remote identification of free-flying moth species, and we hypothesize that such flat specular wing targets could be expected to be sensed over considerable distances.