Hi... I have a question about the evolution of recruiting behavior in honeybees. As you know, when a worker finds a food source, she returns to the hive and conducts a quite elaborate dance. This informs the other workers as to the direction and distance of the food supply. This behavior must have evolved in a step-wise manner, beginning with some sort of pre-adaptation that was gradually modified and elaborated. I have been unable to discover any generally available references that describes this particular process. I recognize that the actual steps may be unretrievable history, but I am simply interested in PLAUSIBLE pathways, sufficient to demonstrate the adequacy of step-wise evolution by natural selection to produce elaborate instinctual behavior. Thanks for any assistance. ---yale [log in to unmask]