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How do honeybees communicate in a dark hive during a dance?

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Serengeti National Park, Tanzania: herd of gnu (wildebeests) — Animal social behavior Herd of gnu (wildebeests) in the Serengeti National Park, Tanzania.

Honeybees do not rely on sight to communicate during a dance in the dark hive; instead, they use tactile and vibrational cues. When a forager bee performs the waggle dance, she moves in a figure-eight pattern, incorporating a straight "walk" and a sporadic fluttering of her wings.1

Other bees in the hive follow the dancer closely, maintaining physical contact with her body to perceive these movements. Through this tactile interaction, they interpret the direction and distance of a food source relative to the sun's position. While chemical signals like scent and queen substance are vital for colony recognition and social regulation within the dark hive, the specific information regarding food location is transmitted through these physical, movement-based signals.12