LIGHT AND MOVEMENT 71 



polarization pattern reflected from the sky. The coordinated dance 

 which a returned forager performs on the surface of the comb within 

 the hive was described by Aristotle, ^ and in recent times has been most 

 closely studied by von rrisch,^ the Austrian naturalist (1949-54), 

 using slow-motion cinematography and specially marked bees attracted 

 to rich diets placed at different distances in different directions from 

 the hive. For distances closer than 10 metres the returned bee com- 

 municated its news to the rest of the hive by performing a simple 

 circular dance ; for distances greater than this the direction of the 

 food is indicated by using the vertical direction on the surface of the 



■/^ 



'4 



VI / 



15 ■. " " ., ^^1 



-^ 



^- 



^O^ny.W. 



V/ " " 

 / " 



Dachau 30.6.52 



Fig. 46. — 1 he " Displacemp:nt Test " in the Orientation of the Bee. 



This test indicates the abihty of the honey-bee to allow for a change in 

 the position of the sun. In («), marked bees from a hive, St., were allowed to 

 feed on the afternoon of June 29th, 1952, from a feeding place, F, 180 m. 

 away in the direction 30° north of west. The following morning the hive was 

 transported to another entirely unknown landscape of a completely different 

 type. Tlie vast majority of the bees (15 out of 19), without any help from 

 familiar landmarks, went to one of 4 alternative feeding places 180 m. away 

 from the hive and 30^ north of west, ignoring other symmetrically placed 

 feeding places. On the first afternoon the sun had been in the west ; on the 

 second morning the sun stood '\\\ the east ; so that in order to retain the same 

 orientation the Ijees must have been able to calculate and allow for the solar 

 moveinents (von Frisch). 



comb (the direction of gravity) to represent the direction of the sun's 

 rays outside the hive, the distance of the soinxe of food by the speed of 

 the dance, and the richness of the find by its vigour. The dance takes 

 the form of a squat figure-of-eight, the straight transverse run of which 

 is marked by the liee actively waggling its body with an enthusiasm 

 depending on the richness of the nectar (Fig. 45) ; the direction of this 

 run bears the same relation to the vertical as does the position of the 



1 Hist. An'nunL, 18, 624b. 8. See Haldane, Behaviour, 6, 256 (1954). 



2 See Fig. 728. 



