Sun Interaction, Errors, and Other Dances

1 . How do bees use the sun position when they communicate in the dance?

Bees use the azimuth of the sun as their compass for direction. They can see polarized light, so they know the direction of the sun even in cloudy weather. They compensate for the time of day and movement of the sun from east to west. They convert the azimuth of the sun into gravitational information so they can demonstrate the direction of the food source inside the darkened vertical comb during the dance.

2 . Is the information in the waggle dance precise enough that all the watching bees find the resource on the first try?

There is a 9–12, degree error in direction and a 2-10 percent error in distance. Less than half the recruits find the resource on the first try. It may take 2-5 flights before finding the resource.

3 . Why the error in the waggle dance?

Tempo decreases in older bees so that they communicate greater distances than when they were younger. Younger bees are less experienced in reading dance language and make error in direction and distance.

4 . What is the sickle dance?

Crescent shaped dance following same biologic and communication principles as the round and waggle dance but helps for food sources located between 50 – 100 meters from the hive. Different races (Italian, Carniolan, Apis cerana etc.) all dance but have slightly different interpretations from other races. Direction conveyed the same way, but communication of distance is different.

5 . What is the vibration dance?

One worker bee grabs another worker and vibrates her body up and down. This technique is for pollen foragers. Vibration dance is also used on the queen before swarming and slows egg production and exercises the queen.