Waggle dance

A term used in beekeeping for a particular figure eight dance of the honeybee. While the round dance is performed for food sources close to the colony (less than 50-80 m), the waggle dance is used for distant floral sites. Upon return to the beehive, a forager bee is able to convey the direction of the food source according to the angle of the waggle run on the vertical surface. For instance, if the bee waggles directly up the surface, then the food source is directly toward the sun. If the bee waggles directly down the surface, then the food source is directly away from the sun. If the food source was located 90 degrees to the right of the hive, the bee would waggle 90 degrees to the right.

See also

• Bee learning and communication
• Honeybee

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Sources:

• Communication and Recruitment to Food Sources by Apis mellifera USDA-ARS, accessed March 2005
• Honeybee Communication Kimball's Biology Pages, accessed March 2005