Just over a week ago, I responded to some of the message about bee
sounds, as follows:
> > Try also:
> > http://www.beesource.com/pov/wenner/sci1964.htm
Bob Harrison replied (in part):
>Interesting hypothesis Adrian. Twenty years trying to prove Von Frisch
>incorrect. Wow!
Actually, it was the other way around. Initially, I was trying to
prove that bees actually did have a "language" of sorts, but that the
sounds produced were more likely a more important element than the
physical maneuver hypothesis von Frisch had come up with.
> I had to chuckle at Adrian saying Von Frish kept the recordings of bees
>Adrian sent. Used the tapes and did not give Adrian credit for the work.
>
>Is there no honor among researchers?
Few people realize that scientists are human beings first and
scientists second, not the other way around. Scientists are under
great socio-political pressure to "be first" with an idea, for
various reasons.
>Quote from pg. 285 of the new "Hive and the Honey Bee" by Adrian Wenner:
>
>"a train of pulsed sounds is made at the low frequency of 250-300 Hertz with
>a pulse duration of about 20 milliseconds and a rep frequency of approx. 30
>per second".
>
>We all know these sounds are inaudible to the human ear (reason I never
>heard the sounds).
No, these [dance and "piping"] sounds are not inaudible to the
human ear. Rather, they are just really "soft" (low intensity) and
not audible without some amplification. During several years of
caging queens from "baby nucs," I worked in a remote isolation yard
among several hundred nuc colonies and could hear these sounds, due
to the lack of background noises so prevalent in our modern society.
>Are you saying, Adrian, that because you have got tape recordings of workers
>making sounds inaudible to the human ear while doing the waggle dance that
>workers are capable of piping?
Not exactly. To record sounds of dancing bees, I essentially did
so while actually inside their hive. That is, I worked in a small
dark room that had an observation hive without glass sides, viewed
the bees with a weak head lamp, and could record their sounds by
holding a microphone right up to the individual bees.
>Have you got a tape recording of a worker piping?
Yes, I have such a recording, on a reel-to-reel tape and a lot of
tape segments of bee dancing.
>Do workers make the same sound as the queen piping in your opinion Adrian?
Did I miss a page on workers making the piping sound?
Workers actually make several sorts of distinctive sounds,
including a piping that sounds somewhat like queen piping (but of
shorter duration). The 1964 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN article had
sonagrams of three examples of worker piping on page 122, but that
figure was apparently not scanned for the web site, as entered above.
>I certainly have not got the knowledge on the subject as you do but you have
>aroused my curiosity. I certainly do not have the experience to say which
>hypothesis is correct. I suspect both to a degree.
Thank you for checking out the web site. We have found that most
bee language advocates have not studied our work (certainly they
don't refer to it in their publications). Thanks to Barry Birkey,
beekeepers such as you now have full access.
In a few months, my new publication (The Elusive Honey Bee Dance
"Language" Hypothesis) should be in print. At that time, I suspect
Barry will include it on the web site.
Adrian
--
Adrian M. Wenner (805) 963-8508 (home office phone)
967 Garcia Road [log in to unmask]
Santa Barbara, CA 93103 www.beesource.com/pov/wenner/index.htm
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* "T'is the majority [...that] prevails. Assent, and you are sane
* Demur, you're straightway dangerous, and handled with a chain."
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* Emily Dickinson, 1862
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