this post was submitted on 03 Apr 2025
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Science Memes

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shrimp colour drama (mander.xyz)
submitted 1 day ago by fossilesque@mander.xyz to c/science_memes@mander.xyz
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[–] lvxferre@mander.xyz 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

how can they see each other dance? I assume it’s because they’re experiencing the dance some other way, but how? (Also it’s hella dark in there, isn’t it?)

By touch. This 50s video shows it well.

[–] stray@pawb.social 2 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Oh, I see. I thought they communicated much more complex information than that, but it's very practical for simple directions with no further details.

[–] lvxferre@mander.xyz 2 points 14 hours ago

Yup - as far as we know the dance conveys three pieces of info, about a food source:

  • direction - by the direction of the waggling
  • distance - by the duration of the waggling
  • benefit - by how frequently they do it (based on the resources and potential predators)

They also release some pheromones while dancing, but I think that's just to warn other bees "hey, someone is dancing in the hive".