The Honeybee Dance By Kaila Bishop 14 June

The Honeybee Dance By: Kaila Bishop 14 June 2011 Biology 3541

Who are the honeybees? -Order: Hymenoptera -Most common species: Apis Mellifera -Major producers of honey and beeswax and primary pollinators for over 50 fruits and vegetables -Live in a beehive, made of golden combs and an array of hexagonal cells made of thin beeswax -Up to 20 000 individuals live in a hive and work together in a specialized social organization Apis Mellifera

The Colony The Honeybee colony consists of different kinds of bees that all work together to create a unique social structure. These bees include: - The Queen Bee - The Drones - The Worker Bees -House/Nurse Bees -Field/Forager Bees

Mature Worker Bee Straight stinger Pollen basket http: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=l. E-8 Qu. BDkkw

The Dance - Unique animal communication system -A bee can communicate the location of a profitable food source to its followers -What the bee communicates: -Distance and Direction -Odour -Presence of a profitable source “One of the greatest discoveries of behavioural science” - Gould 1995

Karl von Frisch (1886 -1982) - Austrian Ethologist -Nobel Prize 1973 in Physiology or Medicine - ”The dance, language and orientation of bees” 1993 - First to discover the dance of the honeybees

How von Frisch Discovered the Dance - Initially studied vision and perception of honeybees - Placed a sugar solution away from the hive - Observed the bees behaviour back at the hive - Saw her perform off movements moving in circles, Round Dance - Noted how far away the sugar source was from the hive - Moved the sugar source further away from the hive - Observed the waggle dance - Frisch regarded the Round dance and Waggle dance as separate, not the case today

The two dances that von Frisch first observed in honeybees

The Waggle Dance - Once a bee finds a profitable food source she returns to her hive and seeks out other individuals on the dance floor -She walks straight ahead on the vertical surface of the comb waggling her body -Stops the waggle run, turns left or right to make semicircular return run back to her starting point -She then repeats the waggle run -Each waggle dance is made up of a series of waggle runs and return runs http: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=l. E-8 Qu. BDkkw

- The follower bees are able to pick up on this signal and successfully leave the hive and find this exact food source that was being communicated -There is also a scent passed along to the followers to aid in their journey to find the food source

- When von Frisch first made his discovery he thought that the only thing the follower bees picked up on was the scent of the profitable food source - He soon made a remarkable discovery, the follower bees would only search for flower with the same scent in the exact same place as the dancer - The followers could somehow get this exact information from the dancers - How are these honeybees able to give such precise directions to a profitable food source inside the dark hive? - Frisch realized there was more to this waggle dance then he initially thought

How it Works 1. Distance Coding: the duration of each waggle run is proportional to the length of the distance to the profitable food source 1 s = ~ 1 km

2. Direction Coding: the angle of the waggle run represents the angle of the journey relative to the sun For example: if the bee heads 30° to the right of the vertical the feeding place is 30° to the right of the sun

http: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=-7 ij. I-g 4 j. Hg

Which Bees Acquire the Information? - In a study done by Judd (1994), it was determined which bees following a dancer successfully acquire the information and are able to go and find the food source - The followers position relative to the dancer is the key factor in determining whether or not the message is conveyed - Follower must be within a 30º arc behind the dancer - This is because of the sound the waggle dancer produces in the dark hive - Example: Abdomen swings right, the followers on the right can pick up on the sound but as soon as the abdomen swings left they can no longer detect it. This means that the follower be must be directly behind the dancer ( or within a 30º arc) to be in the range of the sound from the waggle dance

The presence of predators - When foragers return from a rewarding source they perform the waggle dance more than average, but what if they return from a profitable but dangerous source? - In a study done by Abbott and Dukas (2009), it was shown that honeybees are on the lookout for predators and are always trying to protect the hive - Results from this study show that the honey bee can change its dance pattern if it returns from a patch that was profitable but also contained predators. - How this study was performed - Result: the presence of a cue of predation depresses the dance behaviour in honeybees - This study suggests honeybees can integrate two types of information into one signal

The Condition of the Dance Floor - Comb vibration is am important channel of communication for honeybees - Study done by Tautz (1996) 2 different dance surface conditions were tested - Open empty combs or capped brood combs - Results show that there is higher recruitment success of followers on open empty combs compared to capped brood combs

The Rules of the Dance - Study done by behavioural scientist Crist (2004) the rules of the waggle dance were outlined 1. Dance for the most required resource 2. If there are no urgent requirements in the hive they will dance for nectar 3. Only dance for a profitable reliable food source 4. Exception if the hive is in need 5. Designated area for dancing in the hive 6. Honeybees never dance alone

Overview - Honeybees are remarkable insects that have a very organized social structure, worker bees work to maintain the hive and make sure the queen bee is always happy - A unique feature of their social life is the waggle dance they perform to communicate the location of a profitable food source - The waggle dance was discovered by Karl von Frisch and has been since studied by many other scientists - It is performed via distance coding and direction coding and can give the exact directions to a profitable patch - Many studies have shown that aspects of the dance exist and scientists know that the movements of the waggle dance result in direction to a profitable food source but, because of the fact that no direct evidence exists on how this information is received by other bee, many scientists are skeptical of the true meaning behind these waggle movements

REFERENCES Abbott, K. R. , Dukas, R. (2009). Honeybees Consider Flower Danger in their Waggle Dance. Animal Behaviour, 78, 633 -635. Beekman, M. , Lew, J. (2007). Foraging in Honeybees – When does it pay to dance? . Behavioural Ecology, 255 -262. Crist, E. (2004). Can an Insect Speak? : The Case of the Honeybee Language. Social Studies of Science, 34(7), 7 -41. Hasegawa, Y. , Ikeno, H. (2011). How Do Honeybees Attract Nestmates Using Waggle Dances in Dark and Noisy Hives? . Plos One, 6(5), 1 -7. Seely, D. T. (1995). The Wisdom of the Hive: The Social Physiology of Honeybee Colonies. Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. Seely, D. T. (2010). Honeybee Democracy. Oxford: Princeton University Press. Tautz, J. (1996). Honeybee Waggle Dance: Recruitment Depends On the Dance Floor. The Journal of Experimental Biology, 199, 1375 -1381.

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