Cocaine is a terrible drug — not just for humans, but for honeybees as well, whom it turns into exaggerating liars.

When researchers applied a drop of cocaine to the backs of feeding bees, they returned to their hive and gave a waggle dance — the stepping pattern by which bees communicate food location, and the one thing I retained from my 8 a.m. Biology 101 class — that described the pollen as being far better than it was.

These findings, scheduled to publish on Friday in the Journal of Experimental Biology, are more than a slightly surreal way of passing time: they suggest that honeybees are affected by cocaine in ways similar to humans, and may be useful as experimental models of drug addiction.

According to the press release, the researchers "hope to find out whether the drug has as devastating an effect on honeybee society as it does on human society." One looks forward to the developmental studies on crack larvae.

Citation: "Effects of cocaine on honey bee dance behaviour." By Barron, A. B., Maleszka, R., Helliwell, P. G. and Robinson, G. E. Journal of Experimental Biology No. 212, Dec. 26, 2008.

Video: Honeybee waggle dance / Sinankosak/YouTube

See Also:

WiSci 2.0: Brandon Keim's Twitter stream and Del.icio.us feed; Wired Science on Facebook.