The article by Su et al. in PLoS One 3(6), 2008, claims that, in a
mixed colony, with workers of 2 different honeybee species, using
different "dialects", recruits of the one species were able to
correctly interpret the information relayed in the dances of foragers
of the other species, that use a different"dialect". My initial
intuitive response was a violent rejection!
Only later, upon a careful examination, did I realize that there was a
very good reason for my intuitive reaction:
Staunch "dance language" (DL) sup****ters are convinced that honeybee
dances, (that are not learned behavior), are "instinctive", (i.e.
genetically predetermined); that honeybees have a DL which utilizes
the spatial information contained in foragers'-dances; that different
species and strains of the genus Apis, use different "dialects' of
this DL; and that honeybees have an "instinctive" ability to correctly
interpret Dl information that is relayed in the "dialect" of their own
species. I accept none of this, but I will not explain why, because
this is not the point I wish to expose here.
The point I want to expose is this: Theoretically speaking, the
results obtained by Sue et al. could be due to recruits having somehow
acquired the ability to correctly interpret information relayed in a
different "dialect", or, (as DL opponents claim), recruits simply do
not use the information, so the "dialect" in which the information is
relayed, makes no difference.
To a DL opponent the second explanation is the only one acceptable. It
is also the more parsimonious of the two possible explanations. There
is, however, a far more basic reason to opt for the second
explanation. The reason is that the first explanation requires
honeybees to achieve the impossible! In order to correctly interpret
information relayed in a foreign "dialects", honeybees must know that
dialect. Assuming that they can "instinctively" know the "dialect" of
their own species, they still can, in no way, "instinctively" know a
foreign "dialect". The only way they can know this is by carrying out
the kind of scientific research that enabled Su et al. to learn that;
or else by reading the article that Sue et al. published about that
research. No one is prepared to even remotely consider the possibility
that honeybees can conduct scientific research, or learn by reading
the publication of other scientists. This leaves us with the only
possible solution, i.e. the conclusion that honeybees do not use any
DL information!
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