I posted this question a year ago and had some interesting replies.  I
thought I might try again now to canvass anyone new to the group.
 
Pls email me directly, I'll summarize to the group as necessary.
 
Thanks in advance, Phil
 
 
ATTN:  All Honeybee dance language experts.
 
When you have a moment, perhaps you could consider the following.  There
is no urgency to the matter.
 
Jonathan Bennett (a philosopher) thought that (given the Dance Language
theory), bees  
would accept any dance as correct, even if it was obviously false.  That
is, even if the  
direction and distance conflicted with their knowledge of the local
terrain, the bees would still fly out of the hive towards the place
indicated in response to the false dance.
 
Gould + Gould tried to test this with their "lake" experiments, and the
results were  
somewhat inconclusive. Generally, Gould(s) tried to get bees to 'dance'
for a location in the middle of a lake by making a feeding station in a
canoe.
 
One reason to construct an artifical bee dancer is also to test the
theory in this way.  
 
I still wonder if there is a plausible test after all.  See if you think
if my design is do-able.
 
Here is the background information I assume in the design.  (discussion
welcome here).
 
1.  Bees indicate distance and direction through the dance.   
2.  The distance indicated is a function of the distance flown, _and_
the race of bee  
dancing.  (that is, carnolians indicate distance differently than
Italians).
3.  At any time in the hive, certain bees function as foragers, others
as scouts.  Scout bees tend to be older than foragers, but this is a
function of hive population, etc.
 
 
Here is the experiment:
 
1.  Make up a colony of ½ purebred Italians, and ½ purebred carnolian,
make sure the  
origin of the bee is obvious, either by colour, or by marking the bees
in some way.
2.  Do the standard Dance Language tests, however you should observe:
3.  If a Italian scout dances, the italian foragers should arrive at the
indicated place, while the carnolians arrive at some place farther from
the hive.  If a carnolian scout dances, the carnolians arrive at the
indicated place, the italians fall short.
 
 
Anticipated possible problems:
1.  The hive quickly solves its semantic problems by some correction
measure so that all  
bees dance the same.
2.  The dance-language information and the bee’s resulting actions isn’t
precise enough to measure any difference between the bees of different
races.
 
Does this seem plausible and do-able to anyone?  Comments?
 
I appreciate your time.
 
Phil