CK12 Life Science

Table 12.6: (continued)

Types of Communication Representative Organisms Description

“Dance Language” – a sys-

tem of abstract sym-

bolic communication

Honey bees Thought that various

species of honey bees

are only invertebrates

to have evolved this

type of communica-

tion; angle at which

bee dances represents

direction relative to

sun, length of dance

represents distance to

be flown.

Figure 12.32: A yellow-collared scape moth, showing the feathery antennae. ( 37 )

Social insects, such as the termites (Figure12.33), ants, and many bees and wasps (Figure
12.34), are the most familiar social species. They live together in large well-organized
colonies. Only those insects which live in nests or colonies show any true capacity for hom-
ing. This allows an insect to return to a single hole among a mass of thousands of apparently
identical holes, after a trip of up to several kilometers and as long as a year after last seeing