Finding the honey bee dance floor: New method shows how it moves within the hive

When honey bees find a good source of food, they return to their hive and perform a waggle dance. It consists of a series of movements that communicate the direction and distance to nectar, pollen or water relative to the sun. For years, scientists had a vague understanding of where this occurred in the hive, generally describing it as near the entrance. But in a new paper published in the journal PLOS One, researchers have developed a mathematical method to pinpoint the exact boundaries and shape of the region where this form of communication occurs, an area known as the dance floor.