The Evolution of Honey Bee Communication: Learning from Asian Species

Asian honey bees provide fascinating insights into the evolution of honey bee foraging communication. Although all honey bees use the waggle dance to communicate resource location, variations in the waggle dance and in the biology of Asian species have led to several different hypotheses about how and why this famous behavior evolved. In this review, my goal is to suggest areas of research and questions that will help us understand the evolution of honey bee foraging communication in greater detail. Specifically, I would like to draw attention to the selective pressures imposed by direct competition and aggression over floral resources and nest robbing, signals related to danger, and experiments that may allow us to resolve questions about honey bee dance dialects. I hope that these suggestions will stimulate more research in Asian honey bees and allow us to develop a better overall picture of the evolution of foraging communication in the corbiculate bees (Hymenoptera, Apidae).