@arbitrarykitten mam...
Such a wonderful and interesting article...

Understanding the Waggle Dance....
 
Frisch found that the waggle dance communicated, very precisely, the location of a food supply, the distance of a resource from the nest and the angle of the sun in relation to that resource. “The duration of the waggle, when the bee buzzes and shakes her abdomen, communicates the distance of the flowers,” Winston says. “If she buzzes for two seconds, the flowers may be around 100 meters away,” he adds. “She also buzzes at an angle that corresponds to the direction of polarized light rays from the sun.”

So, the distance of a resource is communicated by the timing of the dance, the direction by the angle of the dance, and the quality of the resource by how enthusiastically the dancing bee buzzes and shakes her abdomen.

“It’s remarkable that an organism with a brain the size of a pinhead can locate, very precisely, the distance and direction of a patch of blooming flowers,” Winston says. “Bees are also capable of using the sun as a compass, and they can remember landmarks,” he adds. “Bees are extraordinary creatures.”

The Importance of Bees...

It’s clear that bees are highly sophisticated and social creatures. How bees contribute to Mother Earth, however, is quite simple: “Bees pollinate flowers, and that simple interaction is so important for the world’s plants and crops,” Winston tells me. But, unfortunately, a number of low-level stressors are bringing about catastrophic outcomes for bees.

Winston tells me that, if bees disappear from the face of the earth, at least a third of our food will vanish along with them. “Some non-bee-pollinated crops like wheat and corn would survive,” he says, “but the fruit, the vegetables, the flowers, those would all be gone.” These plants and flowers create habitat for other insects and animals, and Winston predicts that this kind of scenario would have dire consequences for the entire food chain.

Wel done and perfect work mam...