The waggle dance

Val looks at the discovery of the waggle dance by honeybees and new studies about the bees’ behaviour

- Val Bourne

WE get a lot of honeybees in our garden, although I’m not sure where the nearest hives are. They are very efficient pollinators, but these social bees pollinate in a different way to solitary bees and bumblebees. Honeybees go back and forth to the same flower patch again and again and visit the same type of flower. Solitary bees and bumblebees hop between flowers of different types, browsing as they go.

The difference between the two systems occurs because honeybees live in hives and contribute to a communal honeycomb. They’re told where to find new sources of pollen and nectar by other bees doing the waggle dance in the hive.

This method of signalling was described by Austrian professor Karl von Frisch (1886-1982) in 1927. He was derided for his beliefs at the time, which was not surprising really, but he went on to be awarded the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, with Konrad Lorenz and Nikolaas Tinbergen.