Tiny dancer: Scientists decode meanings of bee waggle-danceUS biologists have now decoded over 1,500 honey bee dances to providing conservation groups trying to boost the imperiled species' population with new insights into their foraging preferences. WASHINGTON: We've long known honey bees shake their behinds to communicate the location of high-value flower patches to one another, a form of signaling that scientists refer to as "waggle dances". A group of US biologists have now decoded the meaning of over 1,500 of these jigs, providing conservation groups trying to boost the imperiled species' population with new insights into their dietary preferences. - Dance floor -To find out, the researchers placed bee colonies in glass-walled observation hives at two sites -- the Belwin Conservancy and Carleton College's Cowling Arboretum in Minnesota. The US honey bee population declined by 40 percent between April 2018 and April 2019 according to a recent report, as the species faces threats from mysterious pathogens, parasites, pesticides.

Source: Bangkok Post February 13, 2020 02:37 UTC