The Honey Factory by Jürgen Tautz

Author:Jürgen Tautz
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Schwartz Publishing Pty. Ltd

How bees find their way to the dancers

The recruitment of foragers is an intricate behavioural chain that begins in the dark hive. It is here that scouts and foragers who have been to food sites must attract the attention of dance followers and pass on to them information about the site. But how can one gain attention in the dark? The ‘house telephone’, mentioned in Chapter 1, plays a critical role here.

Every movement an animal makes is associated with measureable changes in physical forces and fields in their vicinity. Airstreams and oscillations caused mainly by wing vibration accompany dancing honey bees during certain phases of the waggle run. The waggle motion and wing movements are transferred as vibrations to the comb. Furthermore, dancers usually have a higher temperature than other bees around them, and finally, the dancers exude a particular odour.

The fact that such physical–chemical events can be measured does not automatically mean they have any importance for the behaviour of animals. One can only determine if and how they are relevant by watching the behaviour itself.

Modern technology has been crucial in obtaining better insights. Slow-motion videos taken within the dark hive are an important tool, allowing an analysis of the ‘microbehavioural’ details of waggle dancers and followers. Recordings of dance scenes can also be rewound, making it possible to determine from which direction, and from how far away, a follower is attracted and how she behaves when she first becomes aware of the dancer. Behavioural sequences recorded on videos show that a bee first turns her head in the direction of the dancer before she moves. She has detected, through vibrations, odour or other signals, that one of her sisters has some interesting information to share. After turning her head, the follower bee moves towards the dancer and, when close enough, she touches her with her antennae. The follower, now in contact with the dancer, follows her around the dance path.

Recruits have occasionally been seen to follow dancers when standing on a comb directly across the passage between combs and so standing back-to-back with the dancer. These followers are not attracted from a distance like those standing on the same comb as the dancer. They also do not turn their heads towards the dancer, nor do they move actively towards her. Back-to-back followers join a dancer only if they happen to touch her with their antennae and so detect the activity. The different behaviour of the followers can be explained if we take into account that back-to-back followers are not standing on the same comb as the dancer. She receives no comb vibrations because these are not transmitted across the gap between the two combs.

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