I know that it is Eva Crane and all, but the explanation she offered makes
very little sense to me

> because the snow is much brighter 
> than the sky...
> The bee therefore flies upside down
> and crashes on the snow, where she 
> dies of cold. 

But when bees dance, they do waggle runs that are angled from "straight up",
as "straight up" represents the vector to the sun in the dances.  So bees
can sense "up", even in compete darkness, even in an observation hive with
no sun exposure.  Even on the space shuttle, they could detect
micro-gravity, and 
build comb properly oriented to their sense of gravity. 

So why would they lose this sense of "up" when flying?

I would speculate that the bees fly out, and become too cold to maintain
flight, stall, and crash.  Of course they crash head-first, as they have
some forward momentum when crash-landing.  Then, landing in snow, they are
chilled.  I could be proven wrong by film or stills of bees flying upside
down, but in the apple-pollination business, we work bees in the snow
perhaps more than anyone else, and I've never seen  any upside-down flying.
I question that a bee could remain airborne at all once inverted, as they
scull their wings in a manner that would pull them forward and "up", which
would suddenly be "down".    Anyone ever seen bees flying inverted?  

If one were to spread a tarp or lay boards, they would keep the bees that
crash landed on them from being so chilled by the snow, but I don't think
anyone will stop bees from flying on a slightly warmer sunny day.  What I've
seen most often is bees that come out on the front face of the hive, and try
to warm their flight muscles before take-off.  Some do, and fly, some don't,
and walk back in.  If I am correct, a tarp will collect bees that can be
poured back into the hive, or otherwise warmed back up from "inanimate" to
"animate".

> But flying bees have been observed 
> to crash land on white coral and sand 
> beaches in Wake Island during bright 
> sunshine (Hitchcock, 1986), probably 
> also because the ALD is reversed."

Been to Wake island.  As I summarized my sailing trip at the time, "Here
today, Guam to Maui".  Constant winds, 10-15 mph.  Kinda spooky, as the wind
never died down.  I think the wind explains the bees crash-landing better
than bees losing navigation.

Unsettling place, Wake Island. Very cool reception from the "natives",
civilian contract security for US military.  "We can fill your fresh water
tanks, if you are low."  "Do you mind if we search your boat?"  Big
1960s-looking Air Force style radar.  No harbor, no dock.  Big ramp from the
seaplane days.  Nice reefs.  "Yes, you can tie up to a buoy, but you can't
stay for more than 3 days."  "Mind the sharks."  "Don't come ashore without
explicit permission." And this was the late 1980s.  We dove the reefs,
looked at what we could see from the water, and headed for Hawaii.  Note
that we were well over 1500 miles from ANYWHERE else.  Didn't expect them to
run a bed and breakfast for circumnavigators or hold a clambake in our
honor, but I did expect slightly more hospitality.  Most remote outposts at
least offer to radio a report of your safe arrival to anywhere you'd like
("Guam, but Not Forgotten"), or let you mail postcards that won't arrive
home until long after you do, but are still fun.

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