Honeybees waggle to communicate. But to do it well, they need dance lessons

Without older sisters to practice with, young bees flub distances

a group of bees are photographed from above doing their waggle dance

A novel test of honeybees’ waggle dancing shows that they can learn to do it better.

Heather Broccard Bell

In a castaway test setup, groups of young honeybees figuring out how to forage on their own start waggle dancing spontaneously — but badly.

Waggling matters. A honeybee’s rump-shimmy runs and turning loops encode clues that help her colony mates fly to food she has found, sometimes kilometers away.