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From:
James Fischer <[log in to unmask]>
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Date:
Tue, 14 Oct 2003 11:57:12 -0400
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I may be a complete fool to ever post on this topic again,
but I think I can supply some citations without getting
dragged into another drunken brawl.

> Evidently, a dance follower learns only the
> general vicinity of the recruitment target...
> This... can be especially difficult in an
> experimental situation where the recruitment
> target is a tiny dish of sugar water, not a
> sizable patch of flowers.

Yeah, the whole "feeder dish" approach is semi-bogus.
It is a single "flower" with an infinite supply of
nectar.  Not very authentic.

The "beauty" of the "inherent sloppiness" of bee dance
is that it tends to NOT result in sorties to a single point,
but results in sorties to an general area.  This is a good
thing, since groups of trees are more common than single trees,
and fields of blossoms more common than single plants.

> Does anyone have a reference for this study using harmonic
> radar to track dance followers?

I think that Tom is referring to the work of the
"Rothamsted Radar Entomology Unit".  Here's
some of their papers on the subject:

 Riley, J.R. & Osborne, J.L. (2000)
 "Course control during foraging movements:
 observations using harmonic radar."
 Proceedings of the 20th Royal Society Symposium
 "Insect Movement: Mechanisms and Consequences".

 Smith, A.D., Reynolds, D.R. & Riley, J.R. (2000)
 "The use of Vertical-Looking Radar to continuously
 monitor the insect fauna flying at altitude over
 southern England."
 Bulletin of Entomological Research 90, pp. 265-277.

 Riley, J.R., Smith, A.D., Reynolds, D.R., Edwards,
 A.S., Osborne, J.L., Williams, I.H., Carreck, N.L.
 & Poppy, G.M. (1996)
 Tracking bees with harmonic radar.
 Nature 379, 29-30.

 Capaldi, E.A., Smith, A.D., Osborne, J.L., Fahrbach,
 S.E., Farris, S.M., Reynolds, D.R., Edwards, A.S.,
 Martin, A., Robinson, G., Poppy, G.M. & Riley, J.R. (2000)
 "Ontogeny of orientation flight in the honeybee revealed
 by harmonic radar."
 Nature 403, 537-540

 Osborne, J.L., Williams, I.H., Carreck, N.L., Poppy, G.M.,
 Riley, J.R., Smith, A.D., Reynolds, D.R. & Edwards, A.S. (1997)
 "Harmonic radar: a new technique for investigating bumble bee
 and honey bee foraging flight. Acta Horticulturae 437, 159-163.

 Riley, J.R., Smith, A.D., Reynolds, D.R., Edwards, A.S.,
 Osborne, J.L., Williams, I.H., Carreck, N.L. & Poppy, G.M. (1996)
 "Tracking bees with harmonic radar."
 Nature 379, 29-30.

Their web site includes the following summary
(watch the line wrap in the following URL!):

http://www.dysonperrins.worcs.sch.uk/Pupils/Year%2013/Jo's%20Project/Current%20P
rojects.htm

Harmonic radar

 "We are using the newly-developed technique of harmonic radar to study honey
 bee navigation in collaboration with scientists from the Freie Universitat
 Berlin. Harmonic radar enables us to monitor the position of free flying
 honey bees over large distances and with far greater accuracy than has
 previously been possible. We are attempting to resolve the question of
 whether bees are able to use a 'cognitive map' rather than relying on
 'route memories'. Von Frisch published the now famous 'waggle dance' which
 he claimed bees could use communicate the position of suitable forage areas.
 This 'dance language' has been somewhat controversial with some scientists
 being sceptical of its efficacy. We have used harmonic radar to measured the
 flight trajectories of bees recruited after observing the waggle dance, this
 has enabled us to settle (hopefully once and for all) this controversy in
 favour of Von Frisch. We are also examining our flight data to see what effect
 the wind has on flight behaviour, paying particular attention to the role odour

 plumes have in the recruitment of bees to new forage sites."

Another interesting area of work has to do with how honeybees measure
distance flown, which appears to be a form of "dead reckoning", tracking
the apparent movement of the landscape below the bee, an approach that
has been fooled by sending the bees through a "funhouse" optical maze,
and then looking at the (longer) "distance" the bees report in their
dancing.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2000/02/000207071327.htm

And if anyone wants to persist in holding the position that
"bees are incapable of overt communication other than via
pheromones", they should read this:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.04/quorum.html

Yep, even BACTERIA can communicate, and in ways that
can only be called "sophisticated".

As far as cognitive arguments go, where it is asked "how could bees
do all the math required to translate a dance into a location?", please
shut down your computer, and go outside to play "catch" with your dog.
Note that your dog can catch the frizbee or ball in mid-air, even though
he has no math skills at all.


                jim  (From bacteria to elephants,
                  we're all just basic elements.
                  And we all turn to compost when we die.)

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