How Bees Tell Each Other Where Flowers Are

A honeybee can describe the exact location of a flower patch without making a single sound.

She does it with a dance, performed in total darkness inside a crowded hive.

When a forager returns with good nectar, she climbs onto the vertical comb and begins the waggle dance.

She runs forward in a straight line while shaking her body from side to side, then loops back to repeat the run.

The angle of her run, relative to gravity, tells the other bees which direction to fly relative to the sun.

If she dances straight up the comb, the food lies directly toward the sun.

A run tilted fifteen degrees to the right means the flowers sit fifteen degrees to the right of the sun.

The longer she [waggles], the farther away the flowers are.

Followers crowd around her, tracking the dance with their antennae and tasting the nectar she brings back.

They also pick up the scent of the flowers on her body, which helps them find the right blooms.

For food sources very close to the hive, bees perform a simpler round dance that announces a find nearby.

The system is remarkably robust, because bees can read polarised light in the sky even when clouds hide the sun.

It is one of the most sophisticated communication systems known in any animal smaller than a human.

The next time you see a bee hovering over a flower, remember that she may be carrying detailed travel instructions.