A basic characteristic of a bee is its flight beyond its visual limit. It can
fly some hundreds of meters from the beehive, while it can identify objects
only withing a few meters distance. In consequence, the bee must navigate.
Navigation means, in principle, the existence of a map, compass and of a
dynamical system of finding the actual position on the map. If we can make
only suppositions about the compass and the dynamical positioning system, as
to the map, we find ourselves in the action zone of the theory. A map is an
image model. The brain builds simplified models (maps) of the external
reality, marking the position of the beehive and the position of the bee in
flight and updating that all the time.
When a young bee comes out of the beehive, it will start flying around it, in
wider and wider circles, but only on clear days. The explanation based on the
theory is that, in this flight, the bee is calibrating its navigation system.
This means that it calculates its position relative to the beehive and
compares the prediction with external reality, as given by direct view. When
the instruments of navigation are calibrated, it can fly beyond the limit of
direct visibility, and return successfully based on the predictions of its map
model.