Bee cognition

Honey Bee Swarm Cognition: Decision-Making Performance and Adaptation

A synthesis of findings from neuroscience, psychology, and behavioral biology has been recently used to show that several key features of cognition in neuron-based brains of vertebrates are also present in bee-based swarms of honey bees. Here, simulation tests are administered to the honey bee swarm cognition system to study its decision-making performance. First, tests are used to evaluate the...

To bee or not to bee.

Bee puzzles

Bees have many natural enemies. It's not just bears that take a shine to the honey and/or the immature insects. There are also yeasts and parasitic insects that threaten to rob the colonies of the rewards of their hard labour. Researchers recently found that one parasite, the small hive beetle, even uses the bee's alarm pheromone as a signpost to congregate on stressed hives. With this and the ...

Bee sanctuary

The mysterious disappearance of entire bee colonies, known as colony collapse disorder or CCD, has mystified researchers for a couple of years now (see Curr. Biol. 17, R389). It was first observed in the US, where highly industrialised bee-keeping practices mean that colonies are shipped across the continent to work large areas of a single crop. But whether this stress or other factors are resp...

Bee Breeding

Figure 1.—The three inhabitants of the hive: A, The ^vorker, a female with arrested development of the egg-laying organs; B, the queen, a female with completely developed egg-laying organs but with undeveloped secondary sexual characters such as those possessed by the worker for secreting larval food, for gathering nectar and pollen, for secreting wax, and the like; C, the drone, the male bee. ...