Waggle wars: Honeybees’ dance moves boost food hunts for the hive — Study

Fascinating and mesmerizing, honey bees talk to one another by dancing, but it doesn’t always work, according to a new study from Virginia Tech.

Known as the “waggle” dance, the duration and direction of their buzzy routine convey “foraging instructions” to their fellow bees as to where to go and how far it is. They pass on information to one another in a jubilee. It is their excitement that inspires their nestmates to leave the nest.

According to Virginia Tech, honeybees don’t always reach their intended destination, prompting entomology researchers to investigate why their waggle dances sometimes fail.

“Although the waggle dance itself is fascinating, my lab has additionally been intrigued about waggle dance miscommunication or the hows and whys behind the failure of the dance recruitment,” Couvillon said.

Each bee has its own “style” of dancing

Head researcher Margaret Couvillon and her team at Virginia Tech observed the intricacies of the dances. Each bee seems to put its own special spin on the idea, so each dance is somewhat unique.

The Couvillon Lab designed an experiment to watch and track them foraging and dancing. They predicted bees with similar dances or communication styles would more likely reach their desired destination: food.

During the experiment, researchers fed foragers the food’s location. They would subsequently dance from their sheer joy. Zeroing on this pattern, they were able to observe under which conditions the communication strategy worked.

However, once they gathered the data from the experiment, researchers were surprised by the findings, which shed light on what defines a successful honeybee dance.

Being uniquely themselves

Researchers were surprised to discover that a similar dancing language didn’t necessarily result in a successful food run and that the individual variations actually amplified the chances of finding the prize.

Bees that provided highly precise distance instructions often struggled to guide their nestmates successfully, according to a press release. However, those that slightly “overshot” the distance improved the chances of recruits locating the food source.

As head researcher Couvillon concluded, honeybees have a remarkable individuality, and their beautiful, enthusiastic dance only fits the character of the Earth’s most beloved pollinator with an intriguing society.

US lost 55% of its honeybee populations

In light of the diminishing number of honeybees, a computer science team from UC Riverside has developed the technology to improve beehive health in commercial settings.

“Over the last year, the U.S. lost over 55% of its honeybee colonies,” Boris Baer, UCR professor of entomology, told UC Riverside News.

“We are experiencing a major collapse of bee populations, and that is extremely worrying because about one-third of what we eat depends on bees.”

Along with the sensor from UC Riverside that se to support beekeeping, bolstering a form of communication that aids the bees in their survival might increase their chances.