Greetings,
        At Dr. Wenner's suggestion, I have been going back over some of his
publications to get a feel for what he has said in the past 30 years about
the "bee dances." In front of me I have the American Bee Journal article of
Feb. 1987. (At the lab we have all ABJs going back to 1900 and and
Gleanings back to 1873, issue #1).

        He says:
        "we feel it should be obvious to beekeepers ... that they have not
benefited from the dance language hypothesis during its 4 decades of
existence. ... Surely beekeepers should have benefited from the language by
now if it had merit, considering ... the large amount of grant support
which has been allotted to this problem."

        The problem with this is two-fold. First, much of the research that
continues to be done on bees falls into two areas: the search for practical
solutions to problems, and the inquiry into the inner workings of bee
colonies. The first type beekeepers naturally want and wish their tax
dollars to go to this. The second type is part of an ongoing quest to
understand animal behavior (not just bees, of course) and the funding by
and large comes from entirely different sources.

        Secondly, entirely too much emphasis is placed on the practical value of
research. This translates into "if I get a patent on this, I will get
rich." You see this in all areas, including agriculture. Industry pours
millions into studying products that will make billions. Who is interested
in studying methods that involve non-patentable products or techniques?

        One place where pure research is carried out is in the University system.
Obviously, this has to be funded and the competition for grant money is
fierce. But one would hope that some money will always go to projects that
are intended to expand our understanding of life, as well as projects that
*may pay off in the long run* but where the pay-off is not yet in sight.

        I only bring this up because it seems to be central to his and Dr. Rosin's
argument against the idea that bees communicate through dancing. Many of us
involved in research hope that funding does not dry up for further inquiry
into insect communication and the study of how their colonies are
organized. It is thoroughly fascinating to learn about how groups
apparently can self-govern in the absence of a definite leader -- but that
is another story!

PB