The Waggle Translator
Honeybee · Set the angle and the duration. The dance below is a set of instructions a returning forager gives her hive-mates. Where does she want them to fly?
Angle from sun
45° · NE
In the dark hive the bee dances on a vertical comb — 45° from straight up translates to 45° from the sun outside.
Waggle duration
1.2s · ≈ 900m
Roughly 1 second of waggle equals ~750 metres of flight. Short waggles mean nearby food; long waggles mean far.
Fly NE — about 900 metres from the hive.
The angle of the straight waggle relative to gravity encodes the flight bearing relative to the sun. The duration encodes distance. Hive-mates memorise both and fly.1946 · von FrischThis mapping earned von Frisch a Nobel prize. It is one of the two most sophisticated known signalling systems outside our own species.
2018 · Landgraf labA robotic bee performed this dance in a real hive. Real bees flew to the destination it named. It is the first successful two-way exchange with another species in that species' own signalling system.