The Brood
Ayoung chick just hatching from the egg is undeveloped in some respects, but on the whole it resembles its parents, and like these it has legs and wings, eyes and beak, etc. Out of the bee’s egg, on the other hand, a little white grub emerges which shows
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DANCING BEES
KARL CON FRISCH RECOMMENDED BY THE BOOK SOCIETY
THE DANCING BEES
THE DANCING BEES AN ACCOUNT OF THE LIFE AND SENSES OF THE HONEY BEE
BY
KARL VON FRISCH
Translated by
DORA ILSE
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Springer-Verlag Wien GmbH
A translation of Karl von Frisch's Aus dem Leben der Bienen. Fifth, revised, edition published by Springer Verlag (BerlinGlittingen-Heidelberg) in 1953. English edition first published in 1954
CATALOGUE NO. 5689/U
ISBN 978-3-7091-4549-4
ISBN 978-3-7091-4697-2. (eBook)
DOl 10.1007/978-3-7091-4697-2. SOFTCOVER REPRINT OF THE HARDCOVER 1ST EDITION 1954
S
To the English Reader
UPPOSE German and English bees were living together in the same hive, and one of the Germans found a lot of nectar: its English companions would easily understand what it had to say about the distance and direction of the find. Human language is not so perfect. So I am indebted to Dr. Dora lIse for interpreting my book for English readers. For these readers I can wish nothing better than a knowledge of bees, which will bring its own delights. MUNICH,
K. v.
8 November 1953
v
FRISCH
I
Preface
we use excessively elaborate apparatus to examine simple natural phenomena Nature herself may escape us. This is what happened some forty-five years ago when a distinguished scientist, studying the colour sense of animals in his laboratory, arrived at the definite and apparently wellestablished conclusion that bees were colour-blind. It was this occasion which first caused me to embark on a close study of their way of life; for once one got to know, through work in the field, something about the reaction of bees to the brilliant colour of flowers, it was easier to believe that a scientist had come to a false conclusion than that nature had made an absurd mistake. Since that time I have been constantly drawn back to the world of the bees and ever captivated anew. I have to thank them for hours of the purest joy of discovery, parsimoniously granted, I admit, between days and weeks of despair and fruitless effort. The desire to share with others the joy experienced was the motive for writing this little book. In it the observations of other scientists and earlier generations, the discoveries of my fellow workers, and my own discoveries, stand linked together in a brotherly way without any names being mentioned. Facts alone are of interest to us, not the discoverer. But are there not more than enough bee books? There is the famous book by Maeterlinck, The Life of the Bee, or Bonsels' Maya: the Adventures of a Bee, both excellent pieces of natural history observation and a joy to the knowledgeable; but the unscientific reader will find it hard to tell where the observation ends and the poetic fancy begins. Again, anyone vii F
viii
THE DANCING BEES
who wants facts about the life of bees and not the picture of them painted by the creative imagination can look at the textbooks; but these are primarily written for the practised beekeeper, and burdened with many kinds of detail of little interest to the
