THE SOCIAL INSECTS 



from which the worker is returning is no more than about 

 ioo yards away, the bee does a " round dance ", running 

 round a circular track, first one way and then the other. 

 Some of these bees then leave the hive, usually before the 

 returned forager sets out again, and search for the source. 

 Some of the workers in the hive closely follow die dance and 

 may partly join in it. At these short distances the search 

 is mainly a matter of quartering the ground in all direc- 

 tions. It was found by experiment that if a worker returned 

 from a dish of syrup placed, say, at fifty yards north, then 

 after the dance the issuing foragers were no more likely to 

 find this dish than another one in a different place the same 

 distance away. 







N ^-W::> 



Jt 



Fig 8 



Dances of the honey bee. Left, round dance ; right, tail-wagging dance, 



If, however, the original or "training " dish contained 

 syrup scented with lavender water, then, if afterwards four 

 dishes were put out, one scented and three not, the foragers 

 all collected at the scented dish, even if it was exposed at a 

 different site from the training dish. Thus, the round dance 

 conveys the information that a rich source of food is to be 

 found somewhere near the hive. If the food has a scent, as 

 will be the case with most natural sources of nectar, this 



114 



