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Science 7 August 1970:
Vol. 169. no. 3945, pp. 544 - 554
DOI: 10.1126/science.169.3945.544
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Articles

Communication of Direction by the Honey Bee

Review of previous work leads to experiments limiting olfactory cues to test the dance language hypothesis

James L. Gould 1, Michael Henerey 1, and Michael C. MacLeod 2

1 Division of biology, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
2 Institute of Molecular Biology, University of Oregon, Eugene

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.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Benefits of recruitment in honey bees: effects of ecology and colony size in an individual-based model.
A. Dornhaus, F. Klugl, C. Oechslein, F. Puppe, and L. Chittka (2006)
Behav. Ecol. 17, 336-344
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Honey bee recruitment: the dance-language controversy.
J. Gould (1975)
Science 189, 685-693
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