In the Bee Talk column of Bee Culture (4-03), Richard Taylor cites Dr Thos
Seeley's research as making the debate about the bee dance "no longer a
matter of controversy."   Great, I'm thinking, let's put this one to
bed.  Unfortunately Taylor cited no references, offered documentation for
$3.06, and returned my money for lack of enough copies.
I located Seeley at Cornell.  He says Taylor probably refered to Fig 3.7 in
his book The Wisdom of the Hive.  To my question about Dr. Wenner's last
posting citing resarch showing poor connection between dancing and
successful foraging, he replied that he did not have time to check the
references but "they do not contradict the idea that dance followers get
location information from a dancer.  What they do show is that dance
followers are not always successful in finding the recruitment target
indicated by a dancer, and that doing so is not an easy task, hence they
generally need much time to do so.  Evidently, a dance follower learns only
the general vicinity of the recruitment target, she flies to this location,
and then often has to execute a lengthy search to pinpoint the recruitment
target. This last stage 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. Incidentally, there has recently been published a
study that has tracked (using harmonic radar) dance followers immediately
upon leaving the hive as they start the search for the recruitment target.
This study confirms the view that dance followers fly out in the direction
specified by the dance.  It may also confirm that they fly out to the
distance specified by the dance, and then start searching for the target
itself."
Does anyone have a reference for this study using harmonic radar to track
dance followers?

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