Honey Bees don’t just instinctively communicate with each other. They have to learn their communication dance. An insect with the brain the size of a poppy seed can socially learn. Kinda like us, amazing! .

Bees learn how to perform “waggle dances,” which guide other worker bees to food, when they’re young by touching their antennae to the bodies of older bees. If they miss this opportunity, their dances are less accurate. The language of bees’ dances is not entirely innate, but partly shaped by social learning. Waggle dance communication is complex, and bees have to perform in complete darkness on vertical honeycomb stages.

Depriving bees of the chance to learn from more experienced bees leads to sloppier dances. Bees’ dances convey information about the distance and direction to food sources. The study’s findings represent a new level of complexity in the transmission of information within a bee colony. The role of social learning in other interactions within a honeybee colony is also being studied.

For more information click: https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/09/world/bees-waggle-dance-scn/index.html