Age structure is an important feature of the division of labour within honeybee colonies, but its effects on colony dynamics have rarely been explored. We present a model of a honeybee colony that incorporates this key feature, and use this model to explore the effects of both winter and disease on the fate of the colony. The model offers a novel explanation for the frequently observed phenomen...

New research shows that honeybees can classify arrangements of two visual patterns according to their spatial configuration. Can bees learn relational concepts of 'above' and 'below'? And are the underlying psychological processes comparable in humans and other primates facing similar tasks?

The question of when in the course of a visit to a feeding place foraging honeybees (Apis mellifera) learn about its location was studied in Experiment 1 by moving the animals a short distance after they arrived and began to feed. A preference for the arrival place developed, although less rapidly than in control animals for which the arrival and departure places were the same. In Experiments 2...

Honeybees, Apis mellifera, were trained to detect coloured disks with either a strong or a weak intensity difference against the background. Green, blue, ultraviolet-reflecting white and grey papers were reciprocally combined as targets or backgrounds, providing strong chromatic and/or achromatic cues. The behavioural performance of the honeybees was always symmetrical for both reciprocal targe...

The mechanism of edge detection in the honeybee was investigated by examining the effects of combining different kinds of visual cues that define an edge. Free-flying bees were trained to land at three different types of edges which were defined by texture and relative motion cues either in isolation or in combination with each other. Bees are able to detect and land at the three types of edges...

Forty-five unmanaged honeybee colonies from the south-east of the Iberian Peninsula (Apis mellifera iberica) were selected for analysing their genetic structure using eight microsatellite loci. These colonies were not subjected to management for queen replacement, rearing or migratory movements and previous studies showed that they had mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) of African origin. Six of the mic...

The Varroa mite, Varroa destructor, is an acarine ecto-parasite on Apis mellifera. It is the worst pest of Apis mellifera, yet its reproductive biology on the host is not well understood. In particular, the significance of the phoretic stage, when mites feed on adult bees for a few days, is not clear. In addition, it is not clear whether the preference of mites for nurses observed in the labora...

Insect mandibular glands are exocrine organs that produce chemical substances known as pheromones that play an important role in intra-specific communication of insects. The mandibular glands of Apis mellifera, which are more highly developed in queens than in workers, present caste-specific polymorphism which seems to be regulated by the juvenile hormone (JH). These glands develop at the pupat...

During flight, insect wings bend and twist under the influence of aerodynamic and inertial forces. We tested whether wing resonance of honeybees (Apis mellifera) matches the wingbeat frequency, against the 'stiff element' hypothesis that the wing's first longitudinal mode exceeds the wingbeat frequency. Six bees were immobilized with their right wing pair outspread, and stimulated with a shaker...

Recent studies have provided a new perspective on the relationship between the honey bee queen and her colony. They suggest that the queen produces a pheromone which pharmacologically manipulates her workers.