I sometimes wonder when we see their weird behaviors like this, if there isn't a new dance "word", that just happens too infrequently to have been documented. The syntax/grammar for butt-dancing is pretty simple, and I don't think there's any documented that could lead them to sneak in through a broken door and search interior spaces.

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afandian 4 days ago | parent | next [-]

They have excellent smell. Not only foraging for plants but hive smells and pheromones which are socially important. I’m sure that would be enough to get them to follow the smell inside a building.

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themafia 4 days ago | parent | prev [-]

"Bob's over by the entrance. He's sweaty and agitated. He's furiously pointing to a place in the field near our home."

What would any social creature do?

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NoMoreNicksLeft 4 days ago | parent [-]

"Nah, I checked that place out 20 minutes ago... there are no flowers. It's not a real place at all!"

I mean, given how little study bee dance language has gotten, if there's another unknown word and was only performed once a year by a typical hive, no one would have ever seen it. And their vocabulary isn't taught, it's instinctive, so low frequency usage wouldn't be an impediment to transmission.

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themafia 4 days ago | parent [-]

What communication occurs to draw bees to the location of a fallen hive member? They seem to do that without the dance at all. So there's clearly multiple communications layers. I'm assuming that those layers work in concert to convey more complex ideas.

It's not just the finger pointing, it's the look on his face, and the smell of his sweat.

	▲	NoMoreNicksLeft 4 days ago \| parent [-]
		>What communication occurs to draw bees to the location of a fallen hive member? Pheromones. Some people claim to be able to smell those themselves, some of them at least.