Importance of wing movements for information transfer during honey bee waggle dance

There is growing evidence indicating that dancing honeybees can transfer some information about the found food source by means of wing movements. However, the available data are limited and inconclusive in the case of the frequency of wing beats. Therefore, in this study, the hypothesis that the wing beats convey information about the foraging distance was re-examined. Honeybee dances were recorded using a high-speed camera, and foraging distances were decoded from the duration of waggle phases. Dancing honeybees moved their wings for almost half (47%) of the duration of waggle phases. The number of wing-beating pulses and the combined duration of wing beating were strongly positively correlated with the duration of waggle phases (p<.0014), whereas the mean frequency of wing beats, the mean duration of wing-beating pulses and the mean number of wing beats in one wing-beating pulse were not correlated with the duration of waggle phases (p>.05). Nevertheless, both the mean frequency of wing beats and the mean number of wing beats in one wing-beating pulse were positively correlated with the mean frequency of abdomen waggles (p<.0014). They were also positively correlated with the mean frequency of wing-beating pulses (p<.0014). The correlation matrix revealed that there were two groups of dance components that were positively correlated within groups, but negatively correlated between groups. One of the groups provided information about distance to the food source. We hypothesise that the other group, including the number of wing beats in one pulse, the frequency of wing beats, the frequency of wing-beating pulses and the frequency of abdomen waggles, may provide information about the motivational state of foragers.