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Posted by rosinbio on 12 Sep 2008 at 18:25 GMT
Insight deserves a rating below zero, because the interpretation of data is unwarranted. Recruits of A.c.c. were not misled by "dance language" (DL) information contained in the dances of foragers of A. m. l., that supposedly use a different dialect, simply because recruits do not use any DL information in the first place. Contrary to the authors naive, and misguided belief, what they had inadvertently, and unknowingly, is to deal the honeybee DL hypothesis the "coup de grace" it has always deserved.
Reliability is poor, because in gathering their data the authors relied on bees that searched the very close vicinity of field-stations, without providing any objective description of what the searching looked like. Also, the authors used no artificial odor at the foragers-feeder inside the tunnel, or at any of the field-stations. Under the circumstances, where the odors that attracted new-arrivals to the field-stations could have come from, remains a mystery.
Stile is irrelevant in view of all the above comment. Pure nonsense can be presented in a perfect manner, but it still remains pure nonsense.