Curiosity of the Week: Bees!
Honey Bees can travel very far just to find nectar and water. They usually go as far as a radius of 4 miles covering 32,166 archers around their hives, but some bees have been know to go as far as 17 miles or even 30 to find what their hive needs to survive. After 7 miles the honey bees will start to loose more ‘weight’ (-8.6 pounds of honey) then they gain from the foraging process, but they will still go that far to find what they require. With this massive distances for a small target honey bees have a form of language to tell their sisters were the flowers are. They communicate with dance.
There are at least 3 different types of dance that the honey bee uses, the most famous of which is the waggle dance. This is a term used by the beekeepers and some ethologist to describe the small wiggly figure 8 dance that a worker bee will do. A successful forager will perform this to identify the location for all of the other workers. It covers the distance, direction, and and patches of followers, water sources, and even new nesting sites.
The direction and distance of the waggle run is directly proportional to the distance and direction of the thing they are referring to. some species of honey bee, specifically the Apis mellifera and Apis nigrocincta, can use the placement of the sun to describe by using the vertical combs of the hive. The duration of the dance correlates to the distance but the speed of the waggle just shows how happy and excited the bee is about its find. Happy bees perform a happy dance!
This dance isn't the only communication used. The scent is tracked by the other bees to find the same source. It is believed that most of the time this isn't new foraging spots one preexisting ones in the hives knowledge. The dance may just be a trigger to activate foraging behavior or activate a memory. This behavior doesn't really function as a language and is actually not that accurate or consistent, it most likely evolved as a social encouragement in the hive. The behaviors extend beyond dancing and include zig-zaging, buzzing, shaking, and even crashing into other nest-mates.
That’s right, those weren’t silly awkward bees, that shit is like a well calculated high-five. A high-five to the face that may end in a broken limb or two. Honey bees aren’t the only ones to do this. Wasps, hornets, bumblebees, sting-less bees, and even ants share this behavior for encouragement.
There are also more dances that are performed in the hive that are social in nature. the tremble dance is recruitment for a source and is very similar to the waggle. This dance is more sent based and more a warning then an encouragement. There is also the grooming dance which triggers allogrooming. Allogrooming is seen in almost every social animal, including humans, were members in the activity make sure they look good, are healthy, and share a mutual relationship, It creates a proximity bond.
Bees have a complex yet very simplistic communication system that reinforces their strange little society. Kind of like humans, dancing, smell, grooming, and awkward encounters keep the members together.
