13 May 05

A Bee’s Course

Bee with radar transponderIn the 1960s, biologist Karl von Frisch came up with the hypothesis that honeybees communicate the distance and direction to nectar sources via a waggle dance performed in the hive. His theory was largely accepted, but some scientists argued that the bees who had attended the dance picked up the scent of the food source from the dancing bee and made their way to the nectar site by following the scent. Lacking a way to directly follow these bees en route, some controversy remained.

Technology moves along, and we are now able to attach harmonic radar transponders (weighing between 6 and 20 mg) to insects. In a paper just published in Nature, scientists used radar to obtain flight tracks of honeybees as they went out to find the food source after observing the waggle dance, thus directly confirming von Frisch’s theory. (Image courtesy of the BBRSC and Rothamsted Research).

Posted by at 07:53 PM in Critters | Link |
  1. Have you read “Secret Life of Bees?”
    I totally recommend it.

    — susurra    13. May 2005, 22:20    Link
  2. How long will it be before the bees have those little antenna balls…

    — Kathy    14. May 2005, 05:16    Link
  3. or for that matter, disco balls?

    — susurra    14. May 2005, 09:39    Link
  4. Wow. Doesn’t the antennae get in their way when in the hive? There isn’t a lot of room in there for a large pole sticking straight up; it’s like my driving my parents lifted truck with the cb antennae on top and driving it though a parking garage.

    And I 2nd “The Secret Life of Bee’s” (by Sue Monk Kidd) suggestion.

    I came here via scrivenings. I like nature, too, and post about the stuff I see in my yard, when visiting the rivers here, etc.

    — a nut    18. May 2005, 07:35    Link

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