To indicate a food source that is too distant from the hive to be smelled or seen, the scout bee dances on the honeycomb in the hive. Other bees gather around and follow the dancer. If the new source of nectar or pollen is distant, the scout does a figure-eight dance. The distance at which the changeover takes place, from round dance to figure eight, varies between subspecies of bees. This does not cause confusion, because the distance is constant within each hive.
Every movement has meaning The scout's every movement has meaning for the other bees.
The direction and angle the dancing bee cuts across the diameter of the circle reveal the direction of the food. If she wiggles across the circle straight up, the watching bees know they can find the food by flying towards the sun. If the dancing bee cuts across the circle at an angle, the others know they must fly to the right or left of the sun at the same angle the dancer moved to the right or left of an imagined vertical line. The dance of the figure eight is also used when bees are selecting a new homesite. Dance couldn't evolve Try to imagine this system evolving.