Round Dance
Verhalten der Bienen
If the nectar source lies close to the apiary, below about a hundred meters, the forager does not dance a figure eight but runs tight circles, frequently changing direction.
If the nectar source lies close to the apiary, below about a hundred meters, the forager does not dance a figure eight but runs tight circles, frequently changing direction. The round dance contains no direction information. How lively the dancing is depends on how productive the source is.
The follower bees maintain close antennal contact and pick up the scent and taste of the forage in the process. At close range this is enough to find it. Von Frisch initially assigned the round dance to pollen foragers and the waggle dance to nectar foragers; only later did it become clear that it is not the type of forage that makes the difference, but the distance.
The hundred-meter mark is not a fixed threshold; the transition to the waggle dance is gradual. The intermediate form is called the sickle dance, but in more recent accounts it is not considered a dance form in its own right. For the apiary, a round dance simply means: the source is right on the doorstep, the dandelions on the apiary meadow, the fruit blossom in the garden, the rapeseed field behind the hives.