Insect field note
Talking with a wiggle
The Bee's Dancing Directions
A honeybee that finds a rich patch of flowers can tell her hivemates exactly where it is, just by dancing in the dark.
Let's look closer
How can dancing possibly give directions?
returning bee moves in a figure-eight pattern called a waggle dance, walking straight through the middle while shaking her body rapidly from side to side, then looping back around to repeat it. The angle of that straight waggle run, compared to straight up on the honeycomb, tells other bees the direction to fly relative to the sun, while the length of time she waggles tells them roughly how far away the flowers are. The other bees follow closely in the dark hive, sensing her every movement, then head straight out to the very spot she described, sometimes kilometers away.
Look for this
Explorer clue
Watch a video of a beehive's glass observation panel online to see the fast, wiggling figure-eight dance in action.
Your turn to wonder
Curiosity question
If you had to explain your favorite place using only movement, no words at all, how would you dance the directions?
Keep wandering
