Learning patterns in Honey bees |
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The Round dance communicates sites close to the hive, typically less than 100m, and consists of a serious of circular movements. This dance portrays distance, but not any kind of directional instruction. The honey bee performs quickly in the central part of the hive, turning in tight circles in both directions (Gould, 1974).
The Waggle dance is used when the food source occurs further than 150m away from the hive, and describes both distance and direction. The honey bee will dance in a semi-circle, then make a straight line back to the start and perform the semi-circle in the other direction. Patterned like a figure 8, the straight movement of the dance involves the lateral wagging of the abdomen, pertaining to the name. The bees wings will emit a low audio frequency of of 250 to 300 hertz per second (Von Frisch, 1967) The length of each 'waggle' directly correlates to the distance of the food source, with longer waggles describing longer distances. The direction of the food source is shown by the orientation of the bee during this dance (Menzel et al 1996). The angle of the target flowers relative to the position of the sun at that current time is demonstrated by the relative to vertical angle the bee performs the dance at. |
This means that for the same location, a honey bees dance will alter depending on the time of day and season, as the location of the sun in the sky is variable. As the sun rises and sets, the honey bee will change the angle of her movements to correlate with the position of the sun at that present time, making it a logical and fairly accurate mapping tool (Von Frisch, 1967). However, the recipient must understand the dance quickly and fully to reap the benefits, with some bees observing over 50 waggle dances without successfully foraging themselves (Gruter, 2009).
Different Apis species perform the dance with slight variances, thought to ensure the information is not able to be used if seen by a competing bee, but it has been recently found that some Apis cerana and Apis mellifera honey bees can understand each other's dance (Gould, 1989). |