Azimuth-dependent waggle dances; flight and foraging activities of the red dwarf honeybee, Apis florea Fabricius (1787)

Waggle dances are a fundamental form of communication in honeybees. The patterns of a waggle dance contain both distance and directional information. Nevertheless, the dance varies depending on the context in which it is performed; absconding, swarming, or foraging. This study is an extension of the study by Duangphakdee, Radloff, Pirk, and Hepburn (2009), who investigated whether the sun’s azimuth (altitude angle of the sun) affected Apis florea F. absconding waggle dances and what effect this had on colony decision-making and behavior. In this study, we add flight and foraging activities to the absconding data from Duangphakdee, Radloff, Pirk, and Hepburn (2009) and tested what effects, if any, the altitude angle had on other behavior and activities both at colony and individual levels. We report the number of waggle dances performed per unit time by A. florea foragers from 07:00 to 17:00 h. The mean frequency distribution of the number of foragers dancing showed a clear-cut trough between 12:00 and 13:...