One of the problems with the debate about bee "language" is
that the simple fact of the honeybees' dancing seems to
dazzle people.  The whole thing makes for such a charming
story.

After reading Adrian Wenner's "Anatomy of a Controversy"
book, I asked myself - "Well, if bees don't dance to convey
location information to other bees, why do they dance?"

I think Professor Wenner and Dr Rosin are probably correct
- bees don't dance to convey location information. Odour
is the key. But their explanations for why the bees nevertheless
dance did not satisfy me.  That is why I published this:

http://naturalscience.com/ns/articles/01-13/ns_jdo.html

On the matter of the value of the Internet in opening up
this debate, and the difficulties in getting anti-language
papers published, I could add that I wrote a follow-up to
the above paper. I was unable to get this published by the
same journal.  The reasons given did not seem entirely
satisfactory to me.  I suspect that there is a level of
censorship of anti-dance language thinking.  The dance
"language" has become a "sacred cow" (excuse the mixed
metaphors) to which people are emotionally attached.


Julian O'Dea
Canberra, Australia

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