Which insects communicate with one another by dancing?

The most common example of this communication technique in the insect world is with bees.

The waggle dance of the honey bee involves an advanced form of touch communication. A scout bee that locates a new field of flowers will return to the hive and perform a waggle dance on the vertical comb. This dance is somewhat in the shape of a figure eight (8). The bee makes two half circles in opposite directions with a straight run between the two half circles.

The bee waggles, or shakes, her abdomen when making a straight line across the middle part of the "8." The other bees crowd around and touch the dancing bee with their antennae. The dance tells the other bees which direction and how far to fly to find the flowers. Sometimes the dancing bee makes the figure "8" sideways, like "oo".

If the dancing bee goes straight up through the middle of this "oo" (180 degrees opposite the pull of gravity), the other bees know the field of flowers is directly toward the sun. A straight downward run by the dancing bee indicates that the field is directly opposite the sun. All other directions are shown by the different angles of the straight run relative to the vertical up and down. For example, if the bee runs upward at an angle of 30 degrees to the left of vertical, the field of flowers will be 30 degrees to the left of the sun.

The number of waggles in the straight line of the dance, along with pulsing sounds from the dancing bee, tells the other bees how far to fly.

[Excerpt originaly from msstate.edu insect zoo basic communication article, no longer online]