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JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY 
[Vol. 16 
United States there is every probability that it may be introduced and should it 
become established and this mite prove a distributor of it, the seriousness of the pest 
would be greatly increased. 
Robert Matheson 
The “Language” of Bees. In the Scientific American for August 1922, there ap¬ 
peared a review of an article on The “ Language" of Bees. There was an abstract 
of this review in the Literary Digest for Sept. 2, 1922. Altho both periodicals are 
widely read, these reviews appeared in such inconspicuous places in their columns 
that it seems doubtful whether the results reported therein-are yet before the bee¬ 
keeping fraternity in America. In fact, it was not until November that these articles 
came to my attention. The original paper, which was published in the Munich 
Medizin Wochenschrift (1922), was by Prof. Karl von Frisch, a German investigator. 
The results of Von Frisch’s experiments lead to the conclusion that the “dance” 
performed at times by loaded fielders just returned to the hive, is a means employed 
to inform the other bees that food is to be had for the getting. This method of com¬ 
munication, however, is inadequate to give the location of the food unless that be 
already known to the recipient of the message. 
I deem it a privilege to be able, at this time, to confirm the conclusion of Prof. 
Von Frisch thru observations and experiments of my own on this very subject which 
have been carried on here at the Iowa Experiment Station at intervals ever since the 
summer of 1919. A brief description of the “dancing” bee as seen in a one frame 
observation hive appears in my notes on “Behaviour of Water Carriers” recorded 
Dec. 29, 1919, and is as follows: “Attention was soon attracted to certain individual 
workers that would come in, bustling and business-like, thru the throng. Such an 
individual was soon set upon by other workers (the number varying from 2 to 5) 
that followed her as she turned round and round, darting this way and that in make- 
believe efforts to free herself from these meddlers, like a puppy with a bone, set 
upon by other puppies.” 
In my notes for April 19, 1920, under the caption, “Some Maneuvers Seen in an 
Observation Hive,” I referred to the above description and recorded my tentative 
conclusion regarding the significance of the “dancing” bee as follows: “Characteristic 
of a worker that has located a source of pollen, nectar or water and has a load to give up. 
Possibly such a bee is trying to attract the attention of other bees in order that they may 
help carry home the plunder .” 
On the same day, April 19, 1920, 1 reported the above conclusion to Dr. E. D. Ball, 
who at that time had supervision of my work and who now is Director of Scientific 
Research in the U. S. Department of Agriculture. A few days later, I confided the 
matter to Prof. F. B. Paddock, State Apiarist of Iowa, and since that time have 
mentioned my observations on this subject to a limited number of others. 
Further observations showed that, with some exceptions, an individual that 
attempted to approach the “dancer” left for the field in less than two minutes after 
coming in contact with her. Some would leave at once but others appeared to find 
it necessary to prepare for the trip by securing a little food from other bees or from a 
cell. 
Thus, working independently, the two of us arrived at the same conclusion at 
about the same time. Wallace Park 
Iowa Experiment Station 
