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German native, Karl Von Frisch (1886-1982) was best known for his work in the field of ethology (animal and insect physiology and behavior). In 1973, he won the Nobel Prize, which at the time, "Was the first major acknowledment of advances made in the study of ethology." (faqs.org. 2011). []

Frisch began his research with bees by attempting to show that they were not colorblind. By using colored and different shades of grey paper, including a bowl of sugar-syrup, Frisch found that bees could be trained to recognize and distinquish colors from grey. In the course of those experiments Frish noted that bees congregated quickly around available food sources and began to experiment on the bee's communication of food source availability, and subsequently to better understand and "decode" the language of the scout also known as the forager bee.

Only when the bowl was full of syrup, did a forager bee fly back home and notify the rest of the colony.

Frisch also used an observation hive with glass windows. In order to distinguish particular forager bees from the rest of the colony and better observe their behavior, Frisch marked the bees with color dots. "Even before the returning bees turned over the contents of their honey sack to the other bees, they ran over the comb in close circles, alternately to the right and the left." (pg. 1) an activity Frisch later regularly refers to as a "dance". This "dance" is known as //The Tail-Wagging Dance//; a transitional dance, used as a directional signal or a type of map for the other bees in the hive.

The hive foragers create foraging groups. When food supplies become scarce, these groups collect from different sources. "One may collect from dandelions, another from clover, and a third from forget-me-nots." The quality of the food source is also portrayed in the dance. The better the food; the more lively, elaborate, and lengthier the dance

Frisch found that bee groups could become associated with particular feeding places. If those were differentially filled (that is, only one out of two had food) a bee returning from feeding place 1 with news that there was available food would alert bees from both groups, and the bees from group 2 which would inappropriately fly to their empty bowl at feeding place 2. However, Frisch noted, bees naturally feed at flowers, and developed an experiment with flowers in place of scent-neutral glass bowls. When he did this Frisch observed that bees seem to forage within groups that only forage from certain discrete types of blossoms; the blossoms he used in his experiment were linden blossoms and robinias. When a scout bee would return from one or the other only those forager bees associated with the type of flower the scout had harvested would follow the directions of the scout. (page 77) So bees would only follow a scout bee returning from their designated food type. Frisch also demonstrated that in an area with a variety of scents, forager bees would only pay attention to those food sources which matched the scent of a returning scout bee. Finally, scout bees would vary the intensity and duration of their dances relative to the amount or concentration of the available sugar syrup. This is important because "the intensity of the promotional message depends on the quality of the domicile discovered, that the various groups of scouting bees compete with each other, and that therefore the decision is finally made in favor of the best domicile" (pg 81), which itself matters because it means that bees will usually choose the most efficient food source. That is, if intensity and length increases with food source quality, and rhythm decreases relative to distance, then the closest and most rich food sources would be indicated with the most intense dances.  Each colony may hold several foragaing groups. Bees also have a scent gland found in the forager's abdomen that is activated when a food source is found.This helps orient fellow bees within the same foraging group to the food source location.The better the food source; the stronger the scent. Using scent, t he bees were able to detect which forager was connected to a specific food source contained within a specific flower. Combined with the tail-wagging dance "language," bees are able to "communicate" the direction and distance of food sources. Essential odors and synthetic scents produced the same effect. (pg. 2). When scents at the feeding place were changed or replaced by other scents, the swarming recruits changed accordingly. The swarm was guided by the scent of the dancers. (pg. 2).

Flowers: Healthy pollination from bees yields plant varieties rich in nectar. Frisch compares this process as //Supply and Demand.// (pg. 2).

During another observation, Frisch noticed that bees have a different dance (language) according to the distance of the food source from the hive. //Round dances// were used to communicate food sources at a closer distance than //Tail-wagging dances// used to communicate food sources at a greater distance. "The pace of the tail-wagging dance changes in a regular manner with increasing distance: its rhythm decreases." (pg. 3). "The tail-wagging dance not only indicates distance, but also gives the direction to the goal." (pg. 4). Tail-wagging behavior indicates the direction of the food relative to the sun. Within a dark, vertically oriented hive, European bees orient the dance such that "if the goal lies in the direction of the sun, the tail-wagging dance points upward. If the goal is located 40 degrees to the left on the sun's position, the dancer shifts the straight run 40 degrees left of the vertical, and so forth". However, it was shown that the bees could also, if the honeycomb was moved vertically and with a view of the sky (even just a view of the blue sky, whereby bees can, apparently by polarized vision, infer the position of the sun) the bees would orient themselves so that they would point relative to the sun such that a bee searching for the food source would have to fly at that same relative angle. All this is done with extreme accuracy even at distances of 600m. Additionally, with no view of the sky and oriented horizontally (to remove gravity as a source of direction) bees would dance confusedly.

The same dances are observed on a swarm." In Addition, Frisch showed that bees can perceive polarized light, are familiar with the sun's daily movement, have an internal clock, and use the earth’s magnetic field to navigate at night.

Based on various experiments performed, Frisch concluded, "The information on the direction and distance of the goal was adhered to with astonishing accuracy - and not only in gathering nectar and pollen." (pg. 5).

The dances utilize the angles relative to vertical to portray the angle between the food source and the sun. The sun's position is decisive for the direction of their dancing. They also recognize the sun's position after it has set or when it is obscured.

The stage upon which the bee dances are preformed must be, by necessity, of a vertical orientation (as noted above). The necessity of a vertical plane of comb for dance is expressive of a physical limitation existent in the language of bees. Von Frisch tested this limitation by turning the observation hive horizontally and shielding the contained bees from solar light. "Under these conditions, the dancers could orient themselves neither by gravity nor by the sky, and danced confusedly in all directions", (pg. 6). Here, the interconnectedness of communicative based foraging techniques, a bee's capacity to supply information in terms of solar relativity and distance and the direct relation of such information back unto the hive was made explicit. Von Frisch cites this as just one test capable of refuting assertions that foraging methods expressed in bee populations are merely based on an individual responses to stimuli, (pg. 6).

"Only bees use polarized light not only for their own orientation, but also to communicate with their colonies the direction to a distant goal." (pg. 9). Lindauer and his student H. Martin were the first to recognize that the magnetic field on earth affected the bees.