The honeybee’s waggle dance
When a forager honeybee finds a rich source of food, she returns to the hive and performs a figure-of-eight movement known as the waggle dance.
The angle of the straight “waggle” run, measured relative to vertical on the honeycomb, indicates the direction of the food relative to the sun.
The duration of the waggle run conveys distance: a longer waggle signals food that is further away.
Other bees follow the dancer closely in the dark hive, sensing her movements and the scent of the flowers she has visited.
Passage written for this demonstration and simplified for brevity; it is not drawn from a research study.