Also known as the Harvest Dance (de Werbetanz). When the worker bees of the honeybee go out to find nectar or pollen and return to the hive, they go to the dense swarm of bees on the spleen, vibrate their abdomen fiercely while walking in a figure of eight in a circling action, which was analyzed in detail by K. Von Frisch. This is a form of notification of the presence of a nectar source to fellow worker bees. Notification of the presence of a nectar source to other worker bees is a form of communication. The remaining floral scent on the body surface conveys the scent of the nectar plant; when the nectar source is more than 100 meters away from the hive, the worker bees maintain a certain angle to the direction of gravity, making a straight line, then rotating it to the right or left, and then resuming their original position. In this case, the angle between the straight line and the direction of gravity is the same as the angle between the direction of the sun and the direction of food as seen from the hive. In addition, the speed of the dance and the frequency of the intermittent wing vibrations emitted at that time are inversely proportional to the distance, thus also conveying the distance to the nectar source. The longer the duration of the dance, the richer the nectar source and the more worker bees that need to be deployed.
Do bees really use circle dances or "figure eights" to indicate nectar sources?
Frisch's research suggests that large numbers of worker bees send out "scout bees" to look for nectar before they leave the hive. Once these "scouts" find a favorable location for honey harvesting or a new high-quality nectar plant, they turn into collector bees and fly back to the hive to perform a circle dance or an "8" dance to point out the location of the food and indicate the distance from the hive to the nectar source by the speed of the dance," said Frisch. The speed of the dance indicates the distance from the hive to the source of nectar, and the smell of pollen attached to the body indicates the type of food and notifies the group to collect nectar together. When the scout bee finds a source of honey within 100 meters of the hive, it returns to the hive to report, and in addition to leaving tracking information, it also alternately turns in small circles on the hive to the left or right, crawling in a "circular dance".
If the nectar source is more than 100 meters away from the hive, the scout bees will change their dance posture to "∞", so it is also called the "8-word dance" or "tail dance". If all the crawling routes are connected, the longer the crawling time in a straight line is, the farther away from the nectar source it is. A straight line that lasts 1 second is about 500 meters from the source, while a straight line that lasts 2 seconds is about 1,000 meters.
There is a direct correlation between the distance between the honey source and the hive and the speed of the dance. The closer the distance, the sharper the turn and the faster the crawl during the dance; the farther the distance, the slower the turn and the slower the movement. The dance movements of bees not only report the distance of the nectar from the nest, but also indicate the direction of the nectar. If the bee's head is turned upward during the waggle dance, it is saying, "Fly in the direction of the sun and you will find pollen." Conversely, it reports, "Food can be found with the sun at your back."
During the warm weather of spring, some scout bees fly out of their hives to look for nectar. When the scout bee finds a source of nectar outside, it sucks up a little nectar and pollen and flies back quickly. When it returns to the colony, it keeps on dancing. Don't think that this is just an expression of joy, in fact, this dance is used by the bees to indicate the proximity and direction of the nectar source. There are two types of dances: the circle dance and the figure of eight dance. If the source of honey is not too far away from the hive, the circle dance is performed on the hive spleen (the place where the honey bees use to hold the honey, incubate their young and live); if the source of honey is farther away, the figure eight dance is performed. If the head is turned upwards during the dance, the source is facing the direction of the sun; if the head is turned downwards, the source is facing the direction of the back of the sun.
When the bees in the hive get the good news from the scout bees, some of them quickly fly out of the hive and follow the direction it leads them. These bees fly back after eating nectar, also dance to their companions, mobilizing everyone to collect nectar. In this way, more and more bees run to the source of nectar, and carry out a lot of collection work. zydg/puter/book/read/ArtImage/20070201/vt5_2.jpg
Bees are based on the sun's polarized light to determine the sun's position, and thus can be oriented to the sun to indicate the direction of the source of nectar. When a scout bee dances, the other worker bees follow intently and then fly out in search of similarly smelling flowers based on the nectar scent of the dancing bee. The more and sweeter the nectar, the more vigorously the scout bee dances, which increases in tempo and lasts longer, as if to say, "Let's go get some nectar!" If the scout bee finds a source of nectar farther away, it switches to a more complex figure-of-eight dance to notify the other worker bees. In the part of the dance that connects the two rings of the figure of eight (the straight run), the bee also swings its tail rapidly, hence the name "waggle tail dance". The number of dances completed in a given time varies depending on the distance from the nectar source: 100 meters or more from the hive, the figure-of-eight dance is repeated nearly 10 times in 15 seconds, while 8,000 meters from the hive, the bees complete the dance at most once in the same time interval. At the same time, the sweeter the nectar, the more often the abdomen swings during the dance. Thus, the worker bees that follow closely behind know the distance and quality of the nectar source.