Waggle Dance
Lexikon
The dance language for more distant nectar sources.
The dance language for more distant nectar sources. Below about a hundred metres, bees perform the round dance; above that, the waggle dance. The dancer runs a straight stretch, waggles her abdomen while doing so, and returns alternately left and right to the starting point.
The information lies in the geometry: the angle of the waggle run to the vertical on the comb corresponds to the angle of the flight direction to the sun, and the duration of the waggling together with the number of waggle movements indicates the distance. The scent on her body reveals the nectar source.
Karl von Frisch decoded this connection and was awarded the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for it.
Quellen (3)
- Freie Universität Berlin, AG Menzel: 100 Jahre Schwänzeltanz. Die Entdeckung durch Karl von Frisch (Biologie in unserer Zeit 1/2024)
- Universität Graz, Fachdidaktikzentrum: Kommunikation im Bienenstock (Studierendentext Schwänzeltanz)
- Die Honigmacher (Landesverband Westfälischer und Lippischer Imker): Tanzsprache