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First published online October 7, 2005
Journal of Experimental Biology 208, 3885-3894 (2005)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2005
doi: 10.1242/jeb.01832

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Encoding spatial information in the waggle dance

Rodrigo De Marco^* and Randolf Menzel

Freie Universität Berlin, Fachbereich Biologie/Chemie/Pharmazie, Institut für Biologie – Neurobiologie, Königin-Luise-Strasse 28-30, 14195 Berlin, Germany

View larger version (26K): [in a new window]   Fig. 1. (A,C) Mean waggle-phase durations (± S.E.M.) of dances elicited by outdoor feeders at three different distances (open circles). The straight line is a linear regression on the data (R=0.99, P<0.01), defined as: waggle phase duration=1.58xdistance travelled+9.8. (A) Mean waggle phase durations (± S.E.M.) recorded in the experiments with the 0°-oriented tunnel (see Materials and methods and Results for details; black circle (o), outbound flight; grey circle (i), inbound flight). (C) Mean waggle-phase durations (± S.E.M.) recorded for the 90°-oriented tunnel (grey circles, (L), to the left; (R), to the right). Also shown are the mean waggle-phase durations measured in the tunnel experiments and their equivalent outdoor flight distances as read off from the regression line. (B,D) Individual scatter (in degrees) of successive waggle-runs measured throughout single waggle dances (mean ± S.E.M.) elicited by outdoor feeders at three different distances (open circles). Data fit an inverse polynomial function (R=0.66, P<0.01), defined as: individual scatter=1.1+3062.4x(distance)–1. (B) Mean values (± S.E.M.) recorded in the experiments with the 0°-oriented tunnel (black circle (o), outbound flight; grey circle (i), inbound flight). (D) Mean values (± S.E.M.) recorded in the experiments with the 90°-oriented tunnel (grey circles, (L), to the left; (R), to the right). In all cases, different letters indicate statistical differences between groups (see Results for details). The number of animals analysed is shown in parentheses.

View larger version (28K): [in a new window]   Fig. 2. Experimental layout and results to investigate the encoding of spatial information in the waggle dance. Individually marked bees were trained to forage on a feeder placed at the far end of a 6 m-long, 30 cm-wide and 30 cm-high tunnel. The tunnel's entrance was located 129 m away from the hive, and its walls and floor were decorated with a random visual texture (see Materials and methods for details). (A) Experimental arrangements with the tunnel oriented at 0° with respect to the direct line connecting its near end and the hive (h). The bees flew through the tunnel during their outbound flights (or) but not during their inbound flights (ir). Fr and Fv correspond to the real and the virtual location of the feeder (open circles), respectively, whereas ov and iv correspond to the virtual outbound and inbound flights, respectively, as derived from the overestimated distance flown inside the tunnel (see Materials and methods). (B) Distribution of the individual mean directions signalled in the waggle dances recorded in the tunnel experiment described in A, mean vector direction µ=1.33°, r=0.99, P<0.001, n1 (number of animals analysed)=22, n2 (number of waggle-runs analysed)=406. The frequencies within 10° class ranges are shown as the areas of the dark wedges. The dark spoke and segment indicate µ and 95% confident interval, respectively. The grey and open arrowheads indicate the directions towards the real (Fr) and the virtual (Fv) feeders shown in A, respectively. (C) The flown distance (mean ± S.E.M.) indicated in the waggle dances recorded in the tunnel experiment described in A (ds, striped bar), the distance to the virtual feeder (dv, open bar, in this case equivalent to the indicated distance) and the real distance from the hive to the food site (dr, grey bar). (D–F) Experimental arrangements and results as in A–C with the tunnel rotated 90° to the right. The distance flown inside the tunnel oriented at 0° (C) was used to compute the location to be encoded (Fv, direction; dv, distance) if the global vector computed by path integration of the outbound flight provides the dancers with the spatial information encoded in the waggle dance. In E, µ=6.77°, r=0.98, P<0.001, n1=10, n2=147. (G–I) Experimental arrangements and results as in D–F with the tunnel rotated 90° to the left. In H, µ=356.1°, r=0.99, P<0.001, n1=9, n2=149. (J–L) Experimental arrangements and results as in G–I, obtained with experienced bees (see Materials and methods). In K, µ=333.99°, r=0.99, P<0.001, n1=6, n2=80. See Results for details on comparisons.