THE LANGUAGE OF BEES — VON FPJSCH 427 



They have something like a language. That is clear from the 

 following observation: When I want some bees for experiments, I 

 place some sheets of paper smeared with honey on the experiment- 

 table in the open air. Then I have to wait many hours, many days 

 even, until finally a bee discovers the feeding-place. But as soon 

 as one bee has found the honey, very many will appear, perhaps 

 several hundred, within a short time. They all come from the same 

 hive as the first discoverer. The latter must have announced its 

 discovery at home. How is that possible? How could it com- 

 municate its discovery? 



To clear up the matter two conditions must be fulfilled: First, a 

 hive allowing one to watch all events taking place on the wax combs 

 in the interior of the hive. For this I constructed observation hives 

 in which the wax combs are not arranged one behind the other, but 

 one beside the other, all together forming a large wax comb, the 

 surface of which can be observed through glass windows. Second, 

 every experimental bee must be numbered to enable it to be recog- 

 nized personally at first sight in the mass of other bees on the wax 

 combs. I succeeded in painting them with colored spots in five 

 different colors. A white spot on the fore part of the thorax is num- 

 ber 1, a red spot 2, orange 3, yellow 4, green 5. A white spot on the 

 hind part of the thorax is number 6, red 7, orange 8, yellow 9, green 

 zero. Now it is possible to write two-figure numbers. The hun- 

 dreds we paint on the abdomen. Thus we can number them up to 

 599. The colored numbers can be read as easily as written ones, and 

 can be recognized when the bee is in flight, so that at our feeding- 

 place we can see from a considerable distance — here comes No. 

 17, etc. 



Now, a bee which has discovered the feeding-place is marked with 

 color and observed after homing in the observation hive. First, it 

 delivers the honey or sugar water, found and sucked up on our table, 

 to other bees in the hive. Then it begins to dance. On the same 

 spot it turns round and round in a circle with quick, tripping little 

 steps, once to the right, once to the left, very vigorously, often half a 

 minute or a full minute on the same spot. The dance is then often 

 repeated on another spot. It is not possible to give a good description 

 in mere words. The dance finishes just as suddenly as it began, the 

 bee hurries to the hole of the hive and returns to the feeding-place. 



The bees on the wax comb around the dancing bee become greatly 

 excited by the dance, they trip behind the dancer, following all its 

 turning movements. They turn their heads to it and keep their 

 feelers as closely as possible to its body, and it is evident that they 

 are highly interested. Suddenly one of the following bees and then 

 another turns away, cleans its wings and antennae, and leaves the 

 hive. Soon afterward these new bees appear at the food place. 



