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Notes by Bea Honeylover, Ph.D.

This new strain of Apis is quite remarkable. I know that bee scouts typically describe the locations of new nectar sources by dancing, but this particular dance is unlike any I have ever seen. I believe that I have been able to decipher it, though:
The scout begins by standing in the middle of a honeycomb cell. She beats her wings and turns completely in a circle and then turns to face the entrance of the hive, at the west.
Then she describes the direction. The dance for each direction is outlined below
- North: Do an about-face. Walk forward one cell, then rotate clockwise by 120 degrees. Walk forward one cell, then turn clockwise 60 degrees.
- South: Turn clockwise 60 degrees. Walk forward one cell. Turn counterclockwise 120 degrees. Walk forward one cell. Turn counterclockwise 60 degrees. Walk forward one cell. Turn counterclockwise 60 degrees.
- East: Walk forward one cell. Turn clockwise 120 degrees. Walk forward one cell. Turn counterclockwise 120 degrees.
- West: Turn clockwise 120 degrees. Walk forward one cell. Turn clockwise 60 degrees.
Non-cardinal directions are danced exactly the way we pronounce them. Northeast is performed, for example, by dancing North, then dancing East. Never the reverse.
The distance is determined by walking forward after that. For each step forward the scout takes after finishing her directional sequence, workers know to travel one unit in that direction.

Now here are the two parts I find most astounding: First is that the scout can remember several fields. She always beats her wings and turns to face the hive entrance when starting a new dance, but always starting from the cell in which she ended, NOT the cell which started her previous dance.
Second is that the bees appear --as the pun goes-- to be *spelling* bees. In every documented dance consisting of multiple flower patches, the scout described the locations in alphabetical order by the type of flower. I have no idea how they ever learned English... it must be some eerie coincidence.
I can cite a single example to fit both phenomena. I recently watched a scout dance out the locations of ten fields in a row! The fields were, in the alphabetical order danced: azalea, clematis, foxglove, geranium, hibiscus, hyacinth, iris, morning glory, pansy, and poppy.

- B.H.