Straight to the point

Posted by Shae on February 03, 2004

In Reply to: Straight to the point posted by Henry on February 03, 2004

: : I have always heard that when someone is in a hurry, you B line it to that point. Where does that come from?

: Bees apparently return to the hive in a straight line, navigating by the sun. Thus they travel in a bee line!
: If the bee does not know where to find food, she will take a somewhat irregular path away from the hive until she finds a suitable food source which may be up to 10 km distant.[1] She will then fly a straight line path back to the hive and make a peculiar ``dance'' on the vertical combs in the hive.

: From the archives; "There is no disagreement among scientists that returning foragers dance in the hive. Everyone also agrees that once a forager locates a good food source, she will be able to fly directly to and from that flower patch. That is, she flies a straight line (a bee-line) to the food patch from the hive using local landmarks and the sun for orientation."
[Dead link removed - ed] Accessed July 28, 2003. Bee Research Digest, ABJ - October, 1992 - Pages 641-644, by Edward E. Southwick, Department of Biological Sciences, State University of New York.

The returning forager 'dances' to the other bees in the hive. Her movements give them exact directions to the new food source and THEY make a bee-line to it.

• Straight to the point Henry 05/February/04