The controversy behind giving other creatures on this planet the
"ability" to learn or communicate surfaces here & there but nowhere as
fiercely  as with the Honey Bee Dance Language.

My question would be this. How does the dance of newly swarmed forager
bees looking for a new residence affect the "decision " of the swarm to
select a one location over another as presented by Tom Seeley?  Would
odor be the main contributing factor in the recruitment of workers to
the "best" location?  Oh that site dose not smell very good lets go to
the other one!

Often I think that the argument should be centered over what is
language?  The dance (and all its components) clearly do convey some
information.  Is this language?

Other insects used in laboratory trials "seem to learn" . That is
experienced insects perform better during some assays. One sees this or
hears it over time.   Science is still reticent to allow other
creatures to have any human abilities--anthropocentrism,
ethnocentrism, or perhaps speciocentrism?

As a final thought--our computer chips have gone through an incredible
change over the last couple of decades--they are smaller and are more
capable.  Has nature evolved such as to be able to do more in the fewer
nerve ganglia of within the bee.  Millions of years of evolution could
have contributed to this?

Mike Griggs
Entomologist/ Support Scientist
Plant Protection Research Unit
USDA ARS, U.S. Plant, Soil & Nutrition Lab.
Tower Road, Ithaca, NY  14853
http://www.ppru.cornell.edu/PPRU.htm

phone:  607-255-1085
fax:        607-255-1132
email:    [log in to unmask]

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