Navigation and dance communication in hoenybees

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Randolf Menzel
• Subject Area: Sensory and Behavioural Biology ; Cognitive, Systems and Behavioural Neurobiology
• Term: from 2014 to 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 259453822

The symbolic character of information transfer in the waggle dance of honeybees is well founded since the discoveries by Karl von Frisch. However, little is known how recruits decode this information and how they use it in the outbound flights. We shall address this question by video recording the dance communication process and by recording the electric fields emanating from the dancing bee. Then the outbound flight of the recruited bee will be tracked with harmonic radar. This will allow us to quantify the decoding process on the side of the recruits. We shall quantify the information transfer in the waggle dance with a novel device that measures the distance and direction code with the electric fields emanating from the dancing bee. These measurements will allow us to localize more precisely the places of natural food sources and potential nest sites. Since recruits are experienced bees we shall ask whether they may refer the information collected from the dancer to the memory of the landscape structure, and thus may develop expectations of the flight route towards the indicated goal.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants