For bees and other social insects, being able to exchange information is vital for the success of th
For bees and other social insects, being able to exchange information is vital for the success of their colony. One way honeybees do this is through their waggle dance. A bee’s waggle dance tells its sisters in the colony where to find a high-quality source of food. . In recent years, scientists have begun to study the actual benefits of this dance language. . They found that bee colonies are more successful at collecting food if they are deprived of their dance language. One possible reason may be human-induced habitat change. . There are about 10 species of honeybees that communicate through waggle dancing. However, the vast majority of bees, i.e., more than 500 species of highly social, stingless insects, have no dance language. . As a communication strategy, waggle dancing is relatively time-consuming. Some waggle dances can last only a few seconds, while others may take up to five minutes. . In their study, they found that Honeybees with no information from the waggle dance are more effective in challenging conditions — The team of biologists was surprised by their result that beehives without the dance information were more active and produced more honey than beehives that used dance language. . Bees in colonies with no dance language went on foraging flights that were eight minutes longer and yielded 29 percent more honey over the entire 18-day period than bees using the waggle dance. . By observing the bees, the scientists made the extraordinary discovery that the bees were apparently able to judge the relevance of the information content of a dance. . Photo: CHRISTOPH GRÜTER . Read More: https://www.losangelescountybeekeepers.com/blog/2019/2/25/nv0ms4zocwu6waeixpp9ix7d0kcuex https://www.instagram.com/p/B6-6EvBH2I1/?igshid=13mtmg0hg94u -- source link
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