Abstract: Research on the visual processing pathways is of great significance in neuroscience, bionic applications and medical treatments. The western honeybee, Apis mellifera, as an important model organism for neurobiology research, has been extensively applied to the research on visual processing pathways. The visual organs of bees include a pair of compound eyes and three ocelli, in which the compound eyes are most important for vision formation. In bees, processing of visual information is achieved within the optic lobes which are divided into four levels of neuropils, i.e., lamina, medulla, lobula and anterior optic tubercle. Complex visual information is segregated at successive stages within the brain, and processed in many parallel and sequential visual pathways. Then they are converged in higher-order brain centers, with some integrated with information of other modalities, which finally generate effective outputs to regulate and control bee behaviours. In this article, the research on visual processing pathways in bee compound eyes is reviewed according to the sequence of information processing in the optic lobes.

Key words: Bee, compound eyes, visual processing pathway, optic lobe, higher-order brain center