What is the current consensus on the "waggle dance" controversy?  I thought
that the robot bee work reported in National Geographic a few years ago had
proved Von Frisch correct but I came across a recent book by Wenner and
Wells still arguing in favour of the odour hypothesis.
 
I understand that AD Blest reported that post-flight movements of some
moths contain information on the flight they have just completed.  Is it
possible that the bee's waggle dance (and the moth's movements) serve to
aid the insect in learning for its own purposes?  That is, could the waggle
dance of bees be a way of fixing the information on a food source in the
nervous system of the bee doing the dancing?  Any communication of the
information to other bees (if it indeed occurs) would be a bonus.
 
It seems obvious that an individual bee will need to "remember" her own
recent successes in terms of direction and duration of flight so that she
can return to her own food sources.