The Dance of the Honeybee

Written by Studio AM.

When a honeybee finds a useful patch of flowers, it may return to the hive and perform a waggle dance. The bee moves along a short straight path while shaking its body, then loops back to repeat the movement.

On a vertical honeycomb, the angle of the straight run represents a direction relative to the Sun. The duration of each waggle run gives information about distance: a longer run generally indicates a more distant food source. A vigorous dance is energetic, but distance is measured from the time spent waggling, not simply how forcefully the bee moves.

Other bees follow the dance and can use its information to search near the reported location. Flower scents also help them find the food. Through movement and scent, a scout can guide workers toward flowers they have not visited.

Questions

Choose an answer. The explanation appears after you answer.

  1. Question 1 of 4

    The passage is mostly about how honeybees

  2. Question 2 of 4

    What does the duration of each waggle run indicate?

  3. Question 3 of 4

    Compared with a shorter waggle run, a longer one generally suggests flowers are

  4. Question 4 of 4

    In this passage, "vigorous" most nearly means:

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