When a food source is between 50 and 150 meters away, a bee will preform a "sickle dance". This particular dance is described more as crescent shaped, and acts as a transitional dance between the round dance and the waggle dance.
The "waggle dance" is used when the food source that is found is more than 150 yards away. In starting this dance, the be runs straightforward, then makes a semicircle as it returns to the starting point. It jets straightforward once again in the same diction, then turns in a semicircle in the opposite direction, completing a figure eight shape. While the been is running straight, it wags it body from side to side. The run is vital, as its direction indicates the direction in which the nectar relative to the sun. Since the bees rely on the sun for directional information, the bee's dance changes depending on the time of day as well as the time of year. The distance of the food source is also accounted for in this dance by the rate in which the bee "semicircles" as well as the duration of its buzzing.
Bees prove to be fascinatingly smart insects, as their entire life is well structured and colonized, even down to their dance steps. It is interesting that they are able to deduce the direction of food in relation to the sun; the ability to distinguish such angles is remarkable for such a tiny creature! These visual signals seem to allow the bees to communicate in their environment with much more ease than they would have vocally, as I can imagine the hive can get quite noisy with all the busyworkers buzzing around!
Here is a video of a bee preforming the "waggle dance"
Sources:
Posted by: Sara Corey (4)
This is a great example of how animals adapt and evolve to their surroundings to maximize their survival and communication potential because they use dances (visual) instead of auditory communication in order to communicate in a very loud environment. Recently, I also learned about bee communication in linguistics class. Did you know that in contrast to birds and how the hatchlings need to hear their species’ song in order to learn how to properly sing it, bees do not have the same need in learning the bee dance? Scientists took bees out of the hive as hatchlings and reintroduced them when they matured. Immediately the bees were able to understand the dance of other bees and perform it themselves.
ReplyDeletePosted by james Lin
Hi Sara,
ReplyDeleteThis is super interesting, especially since I love to dance! I wonder if flys can communicate the same way too or flying insects in general.
Posted by Whitney Huynh
Colony insects always have fascinating ways of communicating. Bees dance in a fascinating code, ants and termites rely on pheromones and tactile communication. The truly profound aspect, though, is the performance of the swarm itself. It is the concept of a "hive mind," sci-fi though that may sound, versus the actions of the individuals. It is almost a larger scale model of the cells within an organism interacting to become the whole. It's rather nifty that bees do it through impressionist dancing.
ReplyDeletePosted by Jacob Lane
I find this amazing that a dance can form a map that other bees can follow. Its incredible how the bees also can adapt their dances to the time of day and year. This reminds me of how turtles can follow the same migration pattern back to where they were born in order to lay their eggs. Animals are so incredibly in tune with factors of the earth that humans cannot even detect.
ReplyDeleteColony communication between bees is fascinating because each bee must communicate in such a way that the whole hive can understand it and then in turn the hive acts and communicates as a whole.
Posted by Suzanne Sullivan
The dances kind of remind me of how people used songs during the time of the underground railroad to give directions. Obviously one was done so that it be a secret but using unconventional types of communication is extremely fascinating especially since they are considered an art form in our lives.
ReplyDeleteJobin Oommen
Does this mean that even when the sun isn't necessarily out, the bees can still tell what position in the sky they should be dancing with? I can't imagine them not eating because of something like the day-to-day weather...or in the winter when there is less daylight, does that mean they eat less? Do bees hibernate?
ReplyDeleteAre there chemical signals that go along with these dances? Maybe that indicate how long ago the nectar source was found? I have to wonder if bees use any other modality of signaling when they rely so heavily on this visual communication.
Posted by Chelsea Van Thof
For me this article raises an important question. What perceptive mechanisms are at work here? To be able to watch a dance and interpret the information encoded in every movement is no small task. What special structures or pathways in the brain do these bees use?
ReplyDeletePosted by Michael Thomas
Very interesting article. I knew that bees used dance to convey information to their fellowe colony mates, but I didn't know they had such scientific names as the "waggle dance." I did not know the dance changes on position of the sun, and that bees use the sun as their source of direction. I wonder what would happen if a bee colony was places in a dark room with several nector sources. How would the bees convey the locations?
ReplyDeleteI think I shall look up some bee dancing on youtube now.
Posted by Austin Gray
I actually learned about this in a linguistic class that I took last year. The instructor's point was that these bees have an order or "syntax" if you will to the parts of their dances and each individual part has a meaning. The professor was trying to get us to think about what constitutes a language and if bee communication could be considered one. I don't think its a true language, but I do find it interesting that the bees evolved not only the ability to do the dance, but to understand it. Most people forget the importance of the second part of communication, which is essential for it to work at all.
ReplyDeletePosted by Janelle Hayes
Great post. Bees simply amaze me. The amount of information they convey in their dances is unbelievable. They are like little mathematicians flying at exact angles and performing an accurate shaped dance to relay information crucial for survival. I would be interested to see if a bee who is not so accurate with their dance has a chance to survive in their nest. Maybe it's an example of survival of the fittest, where the bees in the hive are all so accurate with their dance because the bees not so accurate had been left out to die.
ReplyDeletePosted by Abbie Saranteas
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI also took the linguistics class that covered this topic on bee communication, and it is actually what inspired me to write this post! Chelsea, in regards to your question about how the bees continue to forage when the sun is not visible, I read online that as long as they can see a portion of blue sky then they will be able to navigate efficiently. This is because the light throughout the sky is partially polarized, and any polarized plane in the sky can be determined by the location of the sun. In regards to smell, aside from the scent of nectar the bees carry with them to the hive from the food source, bees also use pheromones to communicate.
ReplyDeletePosted by Sara Corey
James in a previous post mentioned that this dance was genetically based, as reintroduced bees can pick up the dance immediately. Because of it's complexity, does this dance require practice to perfect, as some inherent bird calls do, or is it perfect upon conception. Either way, what differs in the neuron pathway that allows them to have similarities/differences.
ReplyDeleteBy Joseph Needleman