E44 Electroreceptors and electric fields

Topic

The bee in question—which exemplifies another model in this set—detects a specific ambient electric field using a particular electrostatic mechanism.

The insect's antennal and body hairs undergo mechanical deflection due to Maxwell's electrostatic pressure; this functions like a trichobothrium mechanoreceptor, as a force proportional to the square of the electric field acts upon any conductor within that field.

The dielectric polarizability of the insect's cuticle—another aspect of this model—determines the magnitude of the electric dipole induced within the antenna when exposed to an external field.

It has recently been shown that the flower itself generates a specific electric field, which the aforementioned bee can detect to determine whether the flower has recently been visited by another bee.

An insect's wing accumulates a triboelectric charge during flight, which can influence both the insect's interaction with the flower and the subsequent transport of pollen.

Consequently, the detection limit of this electrostatic mechanism—which senses ambient electric fields—is determined by thermal noise (a factor in another model of this set). This noise agitates the sensory hair mentioned earlier; the noise level is estimated using the fluctuation-dissipation theorem—also part of this set of models—applied here in its specific electrostatic form. The fact that the thermal noise agitating this insect's sensory hair is even lower means that, consequently, the ultimate detection limit for the ambient electric field—with which this model began—is also even finer.

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