Dancing Bees

One of the dances performed by forager bees is the waggle dance. Through the dance, bees can relay information about food sources, information like the distance, direction, and even the abundance of the source. The dance was first discovered by ethologist (someone studying animal behavioral patterns) Karl von Frisch and even he was surprised by it. The waggle dance is one of the most complex communicative rituals among insects, mostly due to the complexity and accuracy of the information relayed. 

When someone hears of bees performing dances, they most likely think of the bees understanding the dance by watching it right? Turns out, the dance seems to be a multisensory experience for the bees; also, the inside of the hive is quite dark so seeing the dance would be difficult. The bees inside of the hive will usually touch their antennae with the dancing bee and feel the vibrations of the dance. A bee’s antennae allow the bee to FEEL SMELLS and vibrations. Smell might also play a part in understanding the dance, but what we do know is that bees use all of their senses to understand the dance, just using one won’t do the trick. 

The waggle dance consists of 2 main parts, the waggle and the return. During the waggle, the bee will move in a specific direction while waggling its abdomen (the bee’s butt). Return is when the bee circles back to its starting point and starts the dance all over again. Since bees determine their flying direction relative to the sun’s position, the first message sent by the dance will be the direction of the food. If the bee moves up while waggling, it’ll mean that the other bees should fly toward the sun. The bee communicates the distance of the food by the duration of the waggle phase, the longer the waggling, the farther the source. The more vigorously the bee waggles its butt, the more excited it is, and it tells the other bees the food is abundant and of high quality. 

Source: Why Do Bees Dance? – School Of Bees