Sir

I was saddened to learn of the death of Martin Lindauer, an under-appreciated hero of science. Thomas D. Seeley, in his Obituary (Nature 456, 718; 2008), describes experiments from Lindauer's Communication Among Social Bees (Harvard Univ. Press, 1961) that demonstrate his talent. The book also includes experiments that possess what physicist I. I. Rabi used to call 'witz': an unexpected twist that elevates an experiment to a higher level.

Living in an enclosed, sheltered space, the honeybee Apis mellifera performs its communicative dance on a vertical surface in the dark, using gravity as a substitute for the direction of the Sun. By depriving them of a vertical surface and giving them a direct view of the Sun, Lindauer forced them to revert to the more primitive, Sun-directed dance of their dwarf Indian relative, Apis florea.

In closing the gap between a primitive and an advanced condition, Lindauer possibly produced the best-ever experimental evidence for evolution. Scientists concerned with evolution of human language and mind might ponder his success.