Adrian Wenner:
>We in science call upon a law called "Occam's Razor"
in such a case; use the simplest explanation that
can accommodate the evidence.  Odor is by
>far more simple than a human-type language.


Peter Borst:

1. Between these two explanations, which is more simple?:
         a) Bees encode spatial information into distinct
dance-like movements in order to convey this information
to others.
         b) Many different species of bees have evolved
a highly efficient symbolic representation of spatial
relationships for *no purpose whatever.*


Julian O'Dea: There is a third possibility, c), which I
discuss at

http://naturalscience.com/ns/articles/01-13/ns_jdo.html

This is that the symbolic representation evolved as
idiothetic behaviour: for the benefit of the *individual,
foraging bee*. The "dance" later evolved the function
of attracting other bees to the dancer, to pick up odours.
No symbolic communication, though.

Canberra, Australia