Rick asked "Wasn't there an experiment where a mechanical bee was used to
simulate the dance and it worked."

Yep.  Tom Seeley (Cornell) developed a robo-bee that would dance and send
bees to exactly where Tom wanted them to go.  Often to stations where there
was syrup so diluted that it failed to attract bees other than those sent by
robo-bee!  (All the bees in the robo-bee hive were marked so that the
researchers could be certain to identify them.)

See his wonderful book, The Wisdom of the Hive.

That said, what I have gleamed from the about-to-become-boring discussion is
that dance is only one of the ways that bees communicate food sources.

Lloyd
Lloyd Spear, Owner Ross Rounds, Inc.
Manufacturers of Ross Rounds Comb
Honey Equipment, Sundance Pollen Traps
and Custom Printer of Sundance Labels.

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