Scientists have discovered that bees learn how to communicate via waggle dance when they're young by touching their antennae to the bodies of dancing elder bees; if they miss that chance, their dances have more mistakes, and their maps are less accurate.
A honeybee performs a waggle dance, according to a new study. The bee is blurry because she is moving so rapidly.
When older workers return to the hive and waggle dance, novice workers observe them closely. By doing so, less-experienced bees learn to perform dances that generate more accurate maps to the next meal. Worker bees are all female. Waggle dance communication is complex, and the bees' task is further complicated by having to perform on vertical, irregular honeycomb stages with no light, said study coauthor James Nieh, a professor of biology at the University of California, San Diego.
Despite the challenges, a bee has to use her body to convey lots of information subtly. A dancer follows a straight line, called a "waggle run," then loops back to the starting point in alternating left and right curves; she does this repeatedly, making a figure-eight shape. Duration of the waggle run tells her hive mates how far away the food is, and the waggle run's angle relative to the central line points the direction to the food source.
In their earliest dances, the bees that had no guidance performed dances with more mistakes in their direction angles and in the distance encoding communicated by the vertical waggle run. "While we previously thought that the waggle dance was at best defined by genetics and mechanical capabilities, we now know that there is a social component to learning the dance," said Siefert, a research associate at the Institut für Bienenkunde Oberursel of the Polytechnische Gesellschaft, Goethe University Frankfurt in Germany.
France Dernières Nouvelles, France Actualités
Similar News:Vous pouvez également lire des articles d'actualité similaires à celui-ci que nous avons collectés auprès d'autres sources d'information.
Scientists taught individual bees to solve puzzles. Soon, whole colonies knew how | CBC RadioBumblebees are social learners who follow cultural trends, a new study suggests.
Lire la suite »
Years after scientists fired from Winnipeg infectious disease lab, RCMP still investigatingSome question whether the RCMP is up to the task — or the government is committed to seeing through the potentially embarrassing case.
Lire la suite »
Years after scientists fired from Winnipeg infectious disease lab, RCMP still investigatingYears after scientists fired, RCMP still investigating. Some question whether they are up to the task — or the government is committed.
Lire la suite »
Years after scientists fired from Winnipeg infectious disease lab, RCMP still investigatingYears after scientists fired, RCMP still investigating. Some question whether they are up to the task — or the government is committed.
Lire la suite »
Scientists have revived a 'zombie' virus that spent 48,500 years frozen in permafrostWarmer temperatures in the Arctic are thawing the region's permafrost — a frozen layer of soil beneath the ground — and potentially stirring viruses that, after lying dormant for tens of thousands of years, could endanger animal and human health.
Lire la suite »
Years after scientists fired from Winnipeg infectious disease lab, RCMP still investigatingYears after scientists fired, RCMP still investigating. Some question whether they are up to the task — or the government is committed.
Lire la suite »