Dances - Commuincation

The dance floor is generally close to the entrance but sometimes moves, e.g. goes further inside when it is cold or closer to the entrance when there is lots of activity. In Nature honey combs are vertical, so the dance is generally performed on a vertical plane. When a foraging bee finds food close to the beehive, it performs its simplest dance, the Round Dance.

This dance doesn't provide much information, it is more of an arousal signal. The forager bee runs in a small circle, leaving a single cell inside it. Every one or two circles it suddenly reverses orientation and this goes on from seconds to minutes. However, the dancing bee also gives away odors that can be recognized by bees frequenting the same flowers, who will fly directly to them.

Tail Wagging Dance

n a typical tail-wagging dance the honeybee (Apis Melliphera) runs straight ahead for a short distance, returns in a semicircle to the starting point, again runs through the straight stretch, describes a semicircle in the opposite direction and so on in regular alternation. The straight part of the run is given particular emphasis by a vigorous wagging of the body (rapid rhythmic sidewise deflections). In addition, during the tail-wagging portion of the dance it emits a buzzing sound. Interestingly, the dance followers can make the dancer pause and give them a taste of the nectar by using a squeaking sound.

With increasing distance the number of circuits (8's) per unit time decreases and the length and duration of the individual circuits increases. For example, for a goal at 100 meters it makes 10 short circuits in 15 seconds but at 3 km only 3 long circuits in the same time.

Quite interesting how a worker bee scouts and communicates to the thousand more bees in the hive the direction and distance the food source is.

Round Dance

When a food source is very close to the hive (less than 50

meters), a forager performs a round dance (Figure 1). She

does so by running around in narrow circles, suddenly reversing

direction to her original course. She may repeat the

dance several times at the same location or move to another

location on the comb to repeat it. After the round dance has

ended, she often distributes food to the bees following her.

A round dance, therefore, communicates distance (“close

to the hive,” in this example), but not direction.

Waggle Dance

The waggle dance (Figure 2), or wag-tail dance, is performed

by bees foraging at food sources that are more

than 150 meters from the hive. This dance, unlike the

round dance, communicates both distance and direction.

A bee that performs a waggle dance runs straight ahead

for a short distance, returns in a semicircle to the starting

point, runs again through the straight course, then makes

a semicircle in the opposite direction to complete a full

figure-eight circuit. While running the straight-line course

of the dance, the bee’s body, especially the abdomen, wags

vigorously from side to side. This vibration of the body

produces a tail-wagging motion. At the same time, the bee

emits a buzzing sound, produced by wingbeats at a low audio

frequency of 250 to 300 hertz or cycles per second

Maybe for instance of advertising a billboard could use this method of communication from the bee to locate the closet place where you can buy the honey range I am branding. The communication on the advert will have to be clear for people to understand it and know where to buy it from.