Question

The stimuli through which a dancing scout bee communicates the location of a food source to other worker bees in a hive are
A. Visual
B. Acoustic
C. Contact
D. Contact and visual

Answer 1

Hint: A worker bee first visits a food source and obtains information about it. This information about food location and its type is usually conveyed by bee dance –it serves as a visual stimuli for the worker bees in hives.

Complete answer: Like other insects, communication between honey bees occurs through chemicals and odors.
They also communicate via unique movements called bee dance. It informs the other bees of the hive about the food source, food type, and the distance of the source from the hive.
So, it is a visual communication between the bees. But additionally, the follower bees also tend to remain in close contact with the dancing bee to receive various stimuli.
It is observed that antennal contacts often occur between the bees to transmit signals about body orientation which may indicate the direction of the food source.

So, the correct option is D. Contact and visual

Note: Bee dance can be of two types: round dance and the waggle dance. The round dance is performed by the visitor bee (which visited the food source) if the food is located 25 to 100 meters away; waggle dance is shown when the food source is more than 200 meters away from the hive.