From Bill Summers
After 40 years as a beekeeper, I saw your article on extraordinary intelligence in honeybees as getting close to a truth, but not quite reaching it (24 November, p 42). In particular, it touched on Karl von Frisch’s description of the “famous ‘waggle dance’, the steps of which signal the direction and distance to nearby flowers”.
However, I believe the dance is more likely to be a precursor that summons other bees by vibrating the comb in a dark hive. The bee then gives directions to forage by some other means. I suspect this other means, a bee language if you like, is based on antenna touching, which bees do constantly in pairs and in groups.
If a language does exist in honeybees it would explain much about their ability to organise themselves.
• There was scepticism about the significance of the dance, but the consensus now is that it does transmit information (19 September 2009, p 40).
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Sturminster Newton, Dorset, UK
