The honeybee waggle dance, as explained by the scientists.

The honeybee waggle dance is a fascinating and highly sophisticated form of communication used by forager bees to tell their nest mates about the location and quality of valuable resources, such as nectar, pollen, water, or even new potential nest sites. It's a truly remarkable example of animal communication, often likened to a symbolic language.

Here's how it works:

1. The Scout Bee's Discovery: A scout bee leaves the hive and discovers a good source of food (or other resource). It then returns to the dark hive.

2. The Dance Floor: The bee will find a relatively open spot on the vertical surface of the honeycomb, which serves as the "dance floor." Other bees, known as "followers," will gather around, antennae twitching, to observe and interpret the dance.

3. The Figure-Eight Pattern: The waggle dance involves a specific figure-eight pattern. It consists of two main phases:

a. The Waggle Run (or Waggle Phase): This is the crucial part. The bee moves in a straight line, vigorously wagging its abdomen from side to side.

b. The Return Phase: After the waggle run, the bee circles back to its starting point, alternately to the right or left, to begin another waggle run.

4. Communicating Direction: The direction of the resource is communicated by the angle of the waggle run relative to gravity (upwards) on the vertical comb.

a. If the waggle run is directly upwards, it means the food source is directly in the direction of the sun outside the hive.

b. If the waggle run is, for example, 30 degrees to the right of the vertical, it means the food source is 30 degrees to the right of the sun's current position.

c. The bees intuitively understand that "up" on the comb corresponds to the direction of the sun. They can even adjust their dance angle as the sun moves across the sky, maintaining accuracy throughout the day.

5. Communicating Distance: The distance to the resource is expressed by the duration or length of the waggle run.

a. A longer waggle run indicates a greater distance to the food source.

b. A shorter waggle run means the source is closer.

c. While the exact conversion varies slightly between honeybee species, a general rule of thumb is that a longer waggle run means a farther flight is required.

6. Communicating Quality: The vigour and enthusiasm of the waggle dance, including the speed of the waggling and the number of repetitions, can indicate the quality or richness of the food source. A more vigorous dance suggests a more profitable find. The dancing bee may also share samples of nectar or pollen, or release specific pheromones, which provide additional sensory cues to followers about the type and scent of the resource.

7. Recruitment: After observing the dance, the follower bees "decode" the information. They then fly out of the hive in the communicated direction and distance, using the sun as their compass to locate the advertised resource. This remarkable system allows a honeybee colony to efficiently direct its foraging efforts to the most valuable food patches available in the surrounding environment.

Wow, that is amazing.

Waggle dance video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7ijI-g4jHg