How Do Honey Bees Communicate?
Honey bees communicate with each other by using scents called pheromones and body movements called dances.
Honey bee Pheromones
Honey bees have one of the most complex pheromonal communication systems found in nature, possessing 15 known glands that produce an array of compounds. These chemical messengers are secreted by a queen, drone, worker bee or a laying worker bee to elicit a response in other bees. The chemical messages are received by the bee's antenna and other body parts. They are produced as a volatile or non-volatile liquid and transmitted by direct contact as a liquid or vapor.
Honey bee pheromones can be grouped into "releaser" pheromones which temporarily affect the recipient's behavior, and "primer" pheromones which have a long-term effect on the physiology (the way in which a living organism or bodily part functions) of the recipient. "Releaser" pheromones trigger an almost immediate behavioral response from the receiving bee. Under certain conditions a pheromone can act as both a "releaser" and "primer" pheromone.
The pheromones may either be single chemicals or a complex mixture of numerous chemicals in different percentages.Types of honey bee pheromones:
- Alarm - emitted when a bee, or its hive, is threatened. Smoke is used by beekeepers to mask the alarm pheromone.
- Brood Recognition - emitted by larvae and pupae to inhibit ovarian development in worker bees. Also helps nurse bees distinguish worker larvae from drone larvae and pupae.
- Drone - attracts other flying drones to promote drone aggregations at sites suitable for mating with virgin queens.
- Dufour's Gland - allows worker bees to distinguish between eggs laid by the queen, which are beneficial to the colony, and those laid by workers, which will be under-developed drones.
- Egg Marking - helps nurse bees distinguish between eggs laid by the queen and eggs laid by a laying worker.
- Footprint - left by bees when they walk and is useful in searching for nectar.
- Forager - released by older forager bees to slow the maturing of the nurse bees. This helps keep the ratio of nurse bees to forager bees in the balance that is most beneficial to the hive.
- Nasonov - emitted by worker bees and used for orientation.
- Others including rectal gland, tarsal, wax gland, comb, and tergite gland.
Types of Queen honey bee pheromones:
- Queen Mandibular - one of the most important sets of pheromones in the bee hive. It affects social behavior, maintenance of the hive, swarming, mating behavior, and inhibition of ovary development in worker bees.
- Queen Retinue - important for the attraction of worker bees around their queen.
Honey bee Dances
Honey bees have specific body movements (dances) that they use to convey specific messages to other bees. The most common dance is the "Waggle Dance". This dance is used to inform other honey bees the direction and the distance of a nectar and pollen source. To perform this dance a forager bee waggles her body back and forth very quickly and moves forward in a straight line. The direction of this line tells the other bees the direction of the food source in relation to the sun. The length of her waggle indicates the distance to the food source. At the end of this waggle, she will walk in a half circle back to where she started. As she does this, the other bees will use their antennae to smell her because she is carrying the scent of the flowers they will be looking for. Now the other forager bees know the direction and distance to the food source, and the specific flower to look for.
Below are two videos of the "Waggle Dance". There is a short version and a long version. THIS IS TRULY AMAZING !
"Waggle Dance" Video - Short Version (0:55)
"Waggle Dance" Video - Long Version (7:29)
Excerpts from:
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://www.wakecountybeekeepers.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/HoneybeeLife.pdf
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7ijI-g4jHg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFDGPgXtK-U
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