Sound Communication in Honeybees

FORAGING BEE must transmit to its hivemates information about the distance from the hive to the food source and the angle (a) between the direction of the source and the direction of the sun.

It does a dance on the honeycomb in which its abdomen describes a kind of figure eight.

The "straight run" (A) of the dance has a duration proportional to the distance to the food, and it is oriented at an angle from the vertical equal to angle a. "Recruit" bees track the dancer's side with their antennae.