Honey bees (Apis mellifera) adjust flight strategy depending on loading

Abstract The honeybee is an optimal model for studies on aerodynamics and bionic aircrafts, and they have an excellent loading ability during flight. However, it is unclear how honeybees adjust their flight strategies under different loading states. In this study, metal tags with different weights (20 mg, 40 mg and 60 mg) were glued onto the thoraxes of honeybee foragers, the natural foragers were used as control. A 3D level setup was conducted to record the flight trails of each marked bees during their homing process. Our results showed that the control and the 20 mg group had more flexible turnings with significantly larger curvatures and significantly lower flight speeds compared to the 40 mg and 60 mg groups. During the landing process, the control and the 20 mg group rapidly decreased their flight speeds and notably increased their curvatures, whereas the 40 mg group remained a more stable flight speed and curvature. The 60 mg group notably increased flight speed and decreased curvature before reaching the ground. This work reveals that honeybees have an ability of flexibly altering their flight strategies under different load-bearing states during homing process, which serves as a good model for aerodynamics and bionic aircraft studies.