Study reveals that honeybee dance ‘styles’ sway food foraging success.
Study reveals that honeybee dance ‘styles’ sway food foraging success.
Honeybees use the waggle dance to communicate to their sisters where optimal food foraging sites are. Each bee has an individual way of interpreting this dance communication, and Virginia Tech researchers have learned that differences in communication can lead to the dance being more successful not ...
As far as animals go, honey bees are world-class dancers.
While not as deep and complex as a Super Bowl half-time show, the bees' moves, known as the “waggle" dance, convey very specific food foraging instructions to their nestmates. The direction the dancer moves explains to other bees which way to go, and the duration of the waggle dance, or the “run,” shows how far to go. Once other bees have been convinced to follow the directions, they are “recruited.” After receiving the instructions, these recruits leave the hive to find the food their sisters were so excited about.