In his comments about Bromenshenk's request for information about the
feasibility of diffusion theory, Allen Dick appended the following (as an
aside to my earlier comment about diffusion theory):
My statement: >> Early on, von Frisch also concluded that something such as
>> diffusion theory would not apply.
Allen then asked:
>Are we now finally in agreement with von Frisch?
**********
Absolutely! --- Depending on which hypothesis we are considering. That
is, I wholeheartedly agree with von Frisch's early odor-search hypothesis
as to how recruited bees locate food sources. Again, one can find his
1930s publication (the pertinent hypothesis of his that I agree with) in
Item #1B on the following web site:
http://www.beesource.com/pov/wenner/index.htm
One can find therein, in von Frisch's own words, the following
statements (not in sequence):
1) "As a matter of fact, a few minutes after the commencement of the
dance, new bees appeared at the same time at all the little dishes to the
north and south, to the west and east. They did not know where the food
was."
2) "And I put some other dishes farther and farther away in the meadow,
observing whether they would be found or not. The farther they were, the
longer time it took till they were found by the bees sent out by the dance.
In the last experiment they were found after 4 hours in a meadow a full
kilometer from the hive..."
3) "The dancing bee can communicate a message about all kinds of scented
flowers by means of the scent adhering to its body."
4) "I succeeded with all kinds of flowers with the exception of flowers
without any scent."
That is, I feel that von Frisch was on the right track in the late 1930s
--- until he (and others) became seduced by the exotic notion of bee
"language," a notion that is not supported by results of his earlier
research or results of our extensive research of the past few decades (as
covered in dozens of other publications found on that web site).
In short, one gets no recruitment without odor. Every experiment that
purports to prove bee "language" has necessarily used odor (intentional or
otherwise). Hence, one can never conclude that bees used dance maneuver
information rather than odor. That's when we employ Occam's razor (why
accept a complicated explanation when a simple one will suffice).
One can find a full summary of the above information in Item #15 on that
web site.
Adrian
Adrian M. Wenner (805) 963-8508 (home phone)
967 Garcia Road (805) 893-8062 (UCSB FAX)
Santa Barbara, CA 93106 [http://www.beesource.com/pov/wenner/index.htm]
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*
* "Aesthetic judgments do not arbitrate scientific discourse....
* Ultimately, theories are judged by how they fare when faced
* with cold, hard, experimental facts."
* Brian Greene, 1999
*
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