question_answer

Waggle dance in honey bees tells about

A)  direction of food source

B)  distance of food source

C)  both [a] and [b]

D)  none of the above.

Correct Answer: C

Solution :

  Honey bees have an unique and one of the best understood animal languages with which they inform each other the distance and direction of the source of food. This language was discovered by Karl von Frisch (1948). He found that the forager bee on return to the nest makes two kinds of dances on the surface of the comb - round dance and tail-wagging or figure of eight dance. Round dance indicates that the source of food is near the hive. Direction of food is indicated by the direction of tail wagging. Running vertically up the comb means the food is in the direction of sun and running vertically down means the food is present opposite the sun. However if the straight run is oblique then source of food is at the corresponding angle. If it is dark, the worker bees touch the runner with their antennae to determine the direction of its run.