Editing Honey bee (section)

==Communication==
{{Main|Bee learning and communication}}
Honey bees are known to communicate through many different chemicals and odors, as is common in insects.  They also rely on a sophisticated dance language that conveys information about the distance and direction to a specific location (typically a nutritional source, e.g., flowers or water).  The dance language is also used during the process of colony fission, or swarming, when scouts communicate the location and quality of nesting sites.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/honey-bee-dance-language|title=The Honey Bee Dance Language|last=Tarpy|first=David|date=2016|website=NC State Extension}}</ref>

The details of the signalling being used vary from species to species; for example, the two smallest species, ''[[Apis andreniformis]]'' and ''A.&nbsp;florea'', dance on the upper surface of the comb, which is horizontal (not vertical, as in other species), and worker bees orient the dance in the actual compass direction of the resource to which they are recruiting.

[[Carniolan honey bee]]s (''Apis mellifera carnica'') use their antennae asymmetrically for social interactions, with a strong lateral preference to use their right antennae.<ref name="Rogers-2013">{{cite journal|last=Rogers|first=Lesley J.|author2=Elisa Rigosi |author3=Elisa Frasnelli |author4=Giorgio Vallortigara|author-link4=Giorgio Vallortigara |title=A right antenna for social behaviour in honeybees|journal=Scientific Reports|date=27 June 2013|pages=2045|doi=10.1038/srep02045|pmid=23807465|pmc=3694496|volume=3|bibcode=2013NatSR...3.2045R}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/351355/description/Honeybees_use_right_antennae_to_tell_friend_from_foe|title=Honeybees use right antennae to tell friend from foe|author=Jessica Shugart|work=Science News|access-date=12 March 2016}}</ref>

There has been speculation as to honey bee [[consciousness]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/19/science/honeybees-insects-consciousness-brains.html|title=Do Honeybees Feel? Scientists Are Entertaining the Idea|first=James|last=Gorman|newspaper=The New York Times|date=18 April 2016}}</ref> While honey bees lack the parts of the brain that a human being uses for consciousness like the cerebral cortex or even the cerebrum itself, when those parts of a human brain are damaged, the midbrain seems able to provide a small amount of consciousness. Honey bees have a tiny structure that appears similar to a human midbrain, so if it functions the same way they may be able to achieve a small amount of simple awareness of their bodies.