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Fri, 3 Mar 2006 13:29:55 -0500 |
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What happens if the dancers were censored, and only dancers reporting a
specific location were allowed to pass this information on to the colony?
Madeleine Beekman writes:
Several hundred scout bees fly from the swarm cluster to
search out tree cavities and other potential dwelling
places. The dozen or so scouts that find suitable cavities
report their locations by means of waggle dances performed
on the surface of the bivouacked swarm, and other
scouts decode the dances, visit the sites themselves, and
may dance in turn.
We studied the flights of five large swarms. Three made
270-m flights to our bait hive and two made considerably
longer flights to hollow trees.
We encouraged these three swarms to fly to our hive in the
field, rather than to some tree in the forest, by steadily
monitoring the waggle dances performed on each swarm
and removing any dancers that advertised sites other than
our hive. We did not censor the dances in the other two
swarms which flew to hollow trees.
FROM:
How does an informed minority of scouts guide
a honeybee swarm as it flies to its new home?
MADELEINE BEEKMAN, ROBERT L. FATHKE & THOMAS D. SEELEY
-- Visit www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l for rules, FAQ and other info ---
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