The Language of the Sun

But if the treasure lies further away, she performs the Waggle Dance. This is a masterpiece of navigation. She moves in a figure-eight pattern. The duration of the central "waggle" run corresponds exactly to the distance of the flowers (one second of waggle equals roughly one kilometer). The angle at which she dances relative to the vertical comb indicates the direction of the flowers in relation to the position of the sun. If she dances at a 30-degree angle to the right of vertical, her sisters know to fly 30 degrees to the right of the sun. They read her body like a map, their antennae twitching in resonance with her vibrations.