The Scent of the Waggle Dance
Figure 1
Comparison of Air Samples above Waggle Dancers and Nondancing Bees
A chromatogram of an air sample taken from the dance-floor area on the bottom hive frame, where waggle dancers were present (A) and of a sample from the top frame, where honey was stored and no waggle dancers (but other bees) were present (B). Relative amount of fragments is measured in thousands of counts. Peaks 1, 2, 3, and 4 are Z-(9)-tricosene, tricosane, Z-(9)-pentacosene and pentacosane, respectively, and these peaks distinguish the air over dancing bees from the air over nondancing bees.