Honeybee dances reveal a new level of animal communication

Inside a hive, communication happens without sound or light. Honeybees perform dances that share vital information. Among these, the waggle dance is a striking example of symbolic communication.

Foragers returning with news of food trace specific patterns, encoding distance and direction as if they were coordinates on a living map. For decades, scientists thought this dance offered only vector information.

The bees receiving it were believed to simply fly out in that direction. But recent work challenges this simplified view. The dance may be more than instructions – it could trigger memories and expectations about the environment outside.

Putting honeybee dances to the test

Researchers from Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG) and Freie Universität Berlin tested this idea. They trained a group of bees to a feeder positioned north of the hive, along a gravel road. Then they tracked dance-following recruits using harmonic radar.

Some recruits were released at the hive, others at remote sites. One site resembled the hive environment with a similar road, while the other site was open grassland.

This design helped reveal whether recruits simply followed the vector or relied instead on remembered features of the landscape.

Choices shaped by memory

The results showed a clear pattern. Bees did not blindly follow the vector. When released in a place resembling the hive environment, they flew with precision and efficiency. When released in grassland, their flights grew longer, less direct, and more exploratory.

The study also found that recruits recognized mismatches. They behaved differently when the starting point did not align with what they expected.

This suggests the bees weren’t just copying instructions but were comparing the dance with their own stored spatial memories.

Honeybees dance beyond instinct

The researchers tested whether bees might simply have an innate preference for following roads or long ground structures. Control experiments rejected this idea.

Bees only followed such paths when those matched the routes dancers had actually flown. Foreign recruits, introduced into the test area without prior experience, showed no tendency to follow roads. This ruled out instinct as the explanation.

Other experiments confirmed that elongated ground structures guided foragers only if the bees had previously learned them.

Young bees performing orientation flights, for instance, displayed a tendency to follow patterns only after repeated exposure. This evidence points to learning and memory as the driving force behind the observed behavior.

Flights shaped by memory

Honeybees divide their outbound flights into phases: the initial straight vector, the more flexible search, and finally the homing flight back.

The study found that the vector portion was strongly influenced by the dance, but recruits quickly adjusted if the environment looked unfamiliar. During search flights, bees drew heavily on their prior exploratory knowledge.

The findings reveal that recruits use a kind of cognitive map. They do not rely on raw instructions but instead combine social communication with personal experience. This allows them to anticipate features such as roads or open fields even before encountering them.

Complexity in bee dances

The work highlights the depth of honeybee intelligence. Their communication system is not rigid. Instead, it blends symbolic signals with memories of past exploration. The waggle dance primes recruits not only with directions but also with expectations of what lies ahead.

“Our study reveals a higher level of cognitive complexity in honeybee communication,” said Wang Zhengwei from XTBG.

“Waggle dance-following bees do not simply follow a blind vector instruction, they integrate it with a cognitive map of their surroundings built during earlier exploratory flights. This allows them to form expectations and navigate more efficiently.”

Rethinking the waggle dance

The waggle dance, once thought of as a simple code, now appears more like a layered conversation. It merges instruction with memory, social learning with individual experience. This balance makes bees more adaptable, efficient, and surprisingly sophisticated navigators.

By showing that bees expect specific landscape features and adjust their flights accordingly, the study reshapes how we understand their world. The hive is not just a place of encoded dances – it is also a place where memory and communication meet.

Bees dances an inspiration for AI

These findings go beyond bees. They highlight how even small-brained creatures use flexible strategies when moving through the world. The waggle dance is not just a code but also a way of linking shared knowledge with personal memory.

Understanding this balance could inspire new ideas in robotics and artificial intelligence, where machines may also benefit from combining external signals with stored experiences.

Honeybees remind us that efficient navigation is never just about directions – it is about expectations shaped by memory.

The study is published in the journal Current Biology.

—–

Like what you read? Subscribe to our newsletter for engaging articles, exclusive content, and the latest updates. 

Check us out on EarthSnap, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.

—–