It is with profound regret, therefore, that we present evidence of a previously unsuspected factor at work in honeybee navigation which renders all experimental work to date untrustworthy and of dubious value. Specifically, we will show that within every hive there is a "radio beacon" acting as a reference point for foraging bees. We question the widespread belief that many subtle environmental cues influence honeybee navigation, since these "influences" may simply be the result of inadvertent disturbances of the beacon signal caused unwittingly by the experimenters themselves.
