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The Dance Language

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Honeybees of Asia

Abstract

von Frisch discovered a particularly exciting facet of honeybee biology: communication by the dance language. Only later, when Lindauer entered the scene, did studies on Asian honeybees gain a footing. Since then, great strides have been made with respect to foraging range vs. the dance tempo that shows some of the unique properties of Asian bees. Other topics include: the significance of the dance floor which differs among species, the nature of targeting food sources vs. new nest sites and the kind of information that is transmitted among worker bees. There is also the question of when to dance or not and that is firmly dependent on the azimuth of the sun. Finally, because bees fly along a changing environment, the distance measured will affect the shape of the dance curve; it is not possible to use any standardised calibration curve for the interpretation of dances even for the same colony.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ratchaburi Campus, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, Bangkok, 10140, Thailand

    Orawan Duangphakdee

  2. Department of Zoology and Entomology, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, 6140, South Africa

    H. R. Hepburn

  3. BEE Group, Biozentrum, Universität Am Hubland, Würzburg, 97074, Germany

    Jürgen Tautz

Authors
  1. Orawan Duangphakdee
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  2. H. R. Hepburn
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  3. Jürgen Tautz
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Orawan Duangphakdee .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. , Department of Zoology and Entomology, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, 6140, South Africa

    H. Randall Hepburn

  2. , Department of Statistics, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, 6140, South Africa

    Sarah E. Radloff

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Duangphakdee, O., Hepburn, H.R., Tautz, J. (2011). The Dance Language. In: Hepburn, H., Radloff, S. (eds) Honeybees of Asia. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-16422-4_14

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