Bees: Their Vision, Chemical Senses, and Language

by Karl von Frisch, Donald R. Griffin (Foreword)

Over half a century of brilliant scientific detective work, the Nobel Prize-winning biologist Karl von Frisch learned how the world, looks, smells, and tastes to a bee. More significantly, he discovered their dance language and their ability to use the sun as a compass. Intended to serve as an accessible introduction to one of the most fascinating areas of biology, Bees (first published in 1950 and revised in 1971), reported the startling results of his ingenious and revolutionary experiments with honeybees.

In his revisions, von Frisch updated his discussion about the phylogenetic origin of the language of bees and also demonstrated that their color sense is greater than had been thought previously. He also took into consideration the electrophysiological experiments and electromicroscopic observations that have supplied more information on how the bee analyzes polarized light to orient itself and how the olfactory organs on the bee's antennae function.

Now back in print after more than two decades, this classic and still-accurate account of the behavior patterns and sensory capacities of the honeybee remains a book “written with a simplicity, directness, and charm which all who know him will recognize as characteristic of its author. Any intelligent reader, without scientific training, can enjoy it.”—Yale Review

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Biology

176 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1950

About the author

Karl Ritter von Frisch (20 November 1886 – 12 June 1982) was an Austrian ethologist who received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1973, along with Nikolaas Tinbergen and Konrad Lorenz.

His work centered on investigations of the sensory perceptions of the honey bee and he was one of the first to translate the meaning of the waggle dance. His theory was disputed by other scientists and greeted with skepticism at the time. Only recently was it definitively proved to be an accurate theoretical analysis.

Reviews

[Joshua · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'll read anything about Bees and so I picked this one up from my local library. My review really shouldn't influence anyone. I gave it three stars largely because I had push through most of the explanations of scientific experiments.

This book is of TREMENDOUS value to any and all readers who study bees or raise them, it's just not written for a layman, and I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. Books like this contribute knowledge of an important animal and as such should be read.

I only gave it three stars because I'm weak when it comes to applied sciences. This book is a gem.

[Jim Dyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read it 20 years ago, when I was studying animal behavior in college. It was a summer read, just for fun. Like a lot of very smart authors, he has a gift for making his expertise easy to understand. This book is getting old, but this guy was known as the world's greatest scholar on bees. He got a Nobel prize in 1973, and bees was his specialization. I remember loving his ideas on bee vision (they see polarized light, the changes in light when it reflects off the air, which humans see with filters, and this helps them remember directions), and most interesting was his work on the "waggle dance" (bees dance in a figure eight pattern, and the angle of the dance tells other bees where the food is, and there are issues with the amount of wiggling around or something, that tells them how far away).

I read a dozen books like this over the summers and this was well above average. Even if you don't read much stuff by science people or naturalists (he is both) this one is short and beautifully done. And bees are just cool and fun animals to know about.

[Peachy Keen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really fascinating little book about bees. He focuses on their color vision, their sense of smell, and their dances that tell other bees where to go to find a good source of nectar/pollen. He doesn't actually defend the claim that the communication system constitutes language (and he would have a hard time doing so--see Millikan, 1984). It doesn't seem to be a strong, serious claim in other words--he's really just marveling at how sophisticated their communication is. It's not what we'd expect of familiar insects buzzing around in our gardens.

It is easy to read up until the part about polarized light. He's a little less clear in explaining that, but it's hard to use words and pictures for it I think. I found this video very helpful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXZOL...

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Honey bee language and sensory organs. This book describes the test that proved honey bees can see color

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love bees 🐝❤️‍🔥

[Seth LaRue · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent book, pithy, precise, conversational. Totally charming

[Lisa Kucharski · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book that sums up various lectures Von Frisch gave at universities in the USA. A lovely little book that gives insight into the way bees perceive the environment. He gets pretty specific about what they can see and sense and lists the various experiments he did to verify these findings. He also had a chapter on the way bees communicate to each other where food is. This was pretty interesting, and the way he tested for it seemed to prove his point well. A great book that gives one a peak at how bees are studied, especially if you were trying to create a study yourself!