Abstract
The waggle dance of honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) foragers communicates to nest mates the location of a profitable food source. We used solid-phase microextraction and gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry to show that waggle-dancing bees produce and release two alkanes, tricosane and pentacosane, and two alkenes, Z-(9)-tricosene and Z-(9)-pentacosene, onto their abdomens and into the air. Nondancing foragers returning from the same food source produce these substances in only minute quantities. Injection of the scent significantly affects worker behavior by increasing the number of bees that exit the hive. The results of this study suggest that these compounds are semiochemicals involved in worker recruitment. By showing that honey bee waggle dancers produce and release behaviorally active chemicals, this study reveals a new dimension in the organization of honey bee foraging.
Highlights
More than fifty years ago, Karl von Frisch demonstrated through a series of elegant experiments that the waggle dance of honey bees uses symbolic communication to convey information about a subject that is both spatially and temporally removed from the receiver of the signal [1]
We addressed this first goal by using solid phase microextraction (SPME) and gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC/MS)
A honey bee colony consists of many thousands of individuals, all of which help to perform the work that allows their colony to thrive
Summary
More than fifty years ago, Karl von Frisch demonstrated through a series of elegant experiments that the waggle dance of honey bees uses symbolic communication to convey information about a subject that is both spatially and temporally removed from the receiver of the signal [1]. The role of the waggle dance in this sophisticated system of communication is primarily to direct the colony’s foraging effort toward nectar- and pollen-producing flowers. Successful foragers perform the dance within the nest to recruit other bees to a profitable food source. Despite our considerable knowledge of the information contained in the dance, we still do not understand how dancers attract and convey information to recruits in the darkness of the hive [2]. Airborne sounds [3,4], substrate vibrations [5,6], and tactile cues [7] seem to play some role in attracting recruits to waggle dancers or conveying dance information, but each of these modalities appears to be neither necessary nor sufficient for recruitment [2]
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