A new study published in PNAS has compared the vision of four bee’s species with honey bees. The research focused on the retinal physiology of Bombus terrestris, Anthophora quadrimaculata, Anthidium manicatum, Amegilla murrayensis and honey bee Apis mellifera.

Results showed that photoreceptors of both sexes and all species show significantly better resolution than female forager honeybees, with highest acuity in both sexes of Amegilla and in males of Anthophora and Anthidium. In addition Amegilla, despite small body size, shows impressive photoreceptor detectability thresholds, matched only by much larger honeybee drones, which are specialised to see small and rapid moving objects, such us the queen bees.

Read the scientific paper here