Look Who's Dancing
Check out the steps—and the songs—of honeybees' overlooked cousins
A stingless bee in Panama dances with a sophistication to rival the honeybee, and even bumblebees show a crude form of communication.
References:
Nieh, J.C. 1998. The food recruitment dance of the stingless bee, Melipona panamica. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 43:133.
Nieh, J.C. 1998. The role of a scent beacon in the communication of food location by the stingless bee, Melipona panamica. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 43:47.
Nieh, J.C., and D.W. Roubik. 1998. Potential mechanisms for the communication of height and distance by a stingless bee, Melipona panamica. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 43:387.
Further Readings:
Dornhaus, A., F. Hartmann, and L. Chittka. In press. A window into the past: What bumble bees tell us about Cretaceous dances. In Goettingen Neurobiology Report 1999, N. Elsner, and U. Eysel, eds.
Gould, J.L., and C.G. Gould. 1988. The Honey Bee. New York: Scientific American Library.
Raloff, J. 1996. Growers bee-moan shortage of pollinators. Science News 149(June 29):406.
Sources:
Lars Chittka
Bayerische Julius-Maximilians-Universität
Biozentrum-Zoologie II
Am Hubland
D-97074 Würzburg
Germany
James L. Gould
Princeton University
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
330A Guyot Hall
Princeton, NJ 08544
James C. Nieh
Harvard University
Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology
MCZ-Entomology
Cambridge, MA 02138
From Science News, Vol. 155, No. 14, April 3, 1999, p. 216. Copyright © 1999, Science Service.
