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Published August 7, 1970 | public
Journal Article

Communication of Direction by the Honey Bee: Review of previous work leads to experiments limiting olfactory cues to test the dance language hypothesis

Abstract

In the presence of controls for site- and path-specific odors, observer and food-source scents, Nasanov gland and alarm odors, visual cues, wind, and general site taxis, recruited bees were able to locate the food source indicated by the dances of returning foragers in preference to a food source located at an equal distance in the opposite direction. This was true even when foragers were simultaneously dancing to indicate two different stations. Recruitment in the absence of dancing was very low, while in the absence of foraging it was virtually zero. Thus, under the experimental conditions used, the directional information contained in the dance appears to have been communicated from forager to recruit and subsequently used by the recruit.

Additional Information

© 1970 American Association for the Advancement of Science. The research discussed was funded by U.S. Public Health Service grant FR 07003 and by a grant from the Ford Foundation through the Associated Students of the California Institute of Technology Research Center. We thank Lynda MacLeod and Paul Carpenter for technical assistance, Dennis DiBartolomeo for technical assistance and aid in developing the capturing technique, Drs. N. E. Gary and H. H. Laidlaw for valuable technical advice, Dr. Ian Phillips for thoughtful criticisms, Dr. R. L. Sinsheimer for arranging much of the financial support, and especially Dr. Seymour Benzer, without whose interest, advice, and guidance the research would not have been possible.

Additional details

Created:
August 19, 2023
Modified:
October 25, 2023