At 10:16 PM 11/29/2006, you wrote:
>Hi All,
>
>A question has come up as to whether honey bees can hear sound or just merely detect vibrations. Can Honey bees hear sound?


Quote: 
"Abstract:  Although the airborne sounds produced by dancing honey bees seem essential in the bees' dance communication, attempts to show directly that bees can detect airborne sounds have been unsuccessful. It is shown here that bees can in fact detect airborne sounds and that they do so by detecting air-particle movements. Most vertebrates, by contrast, detect pressure oscillations. Because all traveling sound waves have both components, either can be used in sound detection. The bees' acoustic sense appears to be sensitive enough to allow bees to detect the air-particle movements that occur within several millimeters of a sound-emitting dancer. "

 From "Hearing in Honey Bees: Detection of Air-Particle Oscillations"  http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1989Sci...244..686T


So, it appears they do hear, but perhaps differently then we do.  Of course when you get down to it hearing is just detecting vibrations of air particles.

-Tim

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