1. Communication Psychology 3106

2. Introduction Animals spend a lot of time communicating Defense Defense Mating Mating Food sources Food sources To say communication has occurred we need a sender and a receiver As usual, we can look at evolutionary change, or adaptive value (or both of course)

3. You can dance if you want to…. Dance language of the honeybees Function is to communicate location of food sources to hive members Hive members then can interpret the dance They then go out in the right direction and distance (or just right direction, depends) and find the food

4. The Round Dance Used only if food source is < 50 m away Number of circuits in a given time tell how far away food source is No direction info is given with the round dance

5. The Waggle Dance If food source is > 50 m away Redundant sources of distance info Number of circuits Number of circuits Number of waggles Number of waggles Number of sound bursts Number of sound bursts All proportional to distance All proportional to distance Angle of straight line portion of dance gives compass direction! Up is where the sun is in the sky Up is where the sun is in the sky

6. If you don’t think this is cool….. If they are forced to dance in the open air, they will actually use the sun rather than ‘up means sun’

7. Reconstructing the evolution of the honeybee dance Lindauer’s work All honeybees dance All other Apids dance, but Apis Florea uses a sort of open air ‘dance floor’

8. And the story continues… Some Trigona species just get exited and hum a lot Giving out food in the process actually Giving out food in the process actually Other Trigona species leave a scent mark as well Melipona give out pulses of sound Sort of leads ‘em out Sort of leads ‘em out

9. Adaptive Value The Hive works together anyway, so its best to get to food quickly, by getting others involved The hive works together, but for very specific reasons, and it is not altruism, more on that when we get there The hive works together, but for very specific reasons, and it is not altruism, more on that when we get there Don’t have to waste time leading others out, risk predation etc Costs? Other animals could interpret the signal Other animals could interpret the signal Very unlikely in the bee example Very unlikely in the bee example

10. Sometimes other animals get the signal….. Tungura Frogs Females like the ‘whine chuck’ call Everybody whine chuck tonight…. (Drives the babes wild) But, umm, bats like it too, and bats eat frogs! When they are alone, males only whine, when they are with other males, they ‘whine chuck’

11. You might just get what you wish for, so be careful.. Male European toads call Biggest females respond Ummm errr, well, ummm, it can get ugly, lets’ just say that….

12. Conclusions Animals communicate alll the time Olfactory Olfactory Calls Calls Various other signals Various other signals Others can learn to pick up on the signals Nothing like language though! Humans win humans win!!! Humans win humans win!!!