( 22) used a mathematical model to show that there are a wide range of parameters that favor being a proactive worker (scout) as opposed to waiting for and using socially acquired information. Given that dance communication has significant time costs ( 21), there are likely circumstances when it is more adaptive to either search for new foraging patches or return to known ones ( 12). Finding a specific food site using this socially acquired information, as opposed to finding any food site, may increase the amount of time an individual worker spends searching for food, but it leads to the discovery of better food sources compared to bees that search for food sources by individual exploration (also called scouts) ( 20, 21). Honeybees ( Apis spp.) use a unique behavior that may have evolved more than 20 million years ago ( 18): The waggle dance communicates the location, odor, and presence of high-quality food (or nest) sites to nestmates ( 19). In ants, termites, and some stingless bees, trail pheromones play an important role in foraging ( 13вЂ“ 15), and trophallaxis between nestmates may enable communal control of colony phenotypes or food preferences ( 16, 17). Our results raise the possibility that humans have created environments to which the waggle dance language is not well adapted.Д®usocial insects are known to rely heavily on social information to aid efficient running of the colony. An agent-based model confirmed that, under challenging conditions, waiting for dance information reduces colony foraging success compared to foraging without social information.

This change in information-use strategy suggests bees learn about the value of dance information. This may explain why disoriented colonies had a higher foraging rate than oriented colonies, as bees did not waste time waiting for information. Over time, bees exposed to disoriented dances showed reduced interest in dancing nestmates.

Strikingly, colonies with disoriented dances had greater foraging success. We tested whether spatial dance information affects colony foraging success in a human-modified temperate environment by comparing colonies with oriented and disoriented dances. However, the importance of this behavior in colony foraging success remains unclear. Honeybees use the waggle dance to share information about food-site locations with nestmates.

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