Hexagonal comb cells of honeybees are not produced via a liquid equilibrium process
@article{Bauer2012HexagonalCC, title={Hexagonal comb cells of honeybees are not produced via a liquid equilibrium process}, author={Danielle Bauer and Kaspar Bienefeld}, journal={Naturwissenschaften}, year={2012}, volume={100}, pages={45-49} }
The nests of European honeybees (Apis mellifera) are organised into wax combs that contain many cells with a hexagonal structure. Many previous studies on comb-building behaviour have been made in order to understand how bees produce this geometrical structure; however, it still remains a mystery. Direct construction of hexagons by bees was suggested previously, while a recent hypothesis postulated the self-organised construction of hexagonal comb cell arrays; however, infrared and…
23 Citations
The hexagonal shape of the honeycomb cells depends on the construction behavior of bees
- BiologyScientific reports
- 2016
This work suggests that the observed geometry can arise only if isodiametric cells are previously arranged in a way that each one is surrounded by six other similar cells, and proposes a possible behavioral rule ultimately accounting for the hexagonal shape of bee cells.
Cognitive Aspects of Comb-Building in the Honeybee?
- ArtFront. Psychol.
- 2018
The 2-century old and now largely forgotten work by François Huber is explored, where glass screens were placed between an expanding comb construction and the intended target wall, and bees took corrective action before reaching the glass obstacle, and altered the ongoing construction so as to reach the nearest wooden wall.
Evaluating and Comparing the Natural Cell Structure and Dimensions of Honey Bee Comb Cells of Chinese Bee, Apis cerana cerana (Hymenoptera: Apidae) and Italian Bee, Apis mellifera ligustica (Hymenoptera: Apidae)
- BiologyJournal of insect science
- 2021
This study revealed unique differences in the structure and function of comb cells and showed that honey bees design their cells with precise engineering to increase storage capacity, and to create adequate growing room for their brood.
Comb Architecture of the Eusocial Bees Arises from Simple Rules Used During Cell Building
- Biology
- 2015
Imperfect comb construction reveals the architectural abilities of honeybees
- EngineeringProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- 2021
This paper quantified building challenges that bees face during natural construction and the methods they use to solve them, and found that workers preemptively change their building behavior in constrained geometries to make space for larger hexagonal cells, that irregular cell shapes come in regular combinations, and that bees change both tilt, size, and number of walls to meet different building challenges.
Self-organization at the first stage of honeycomb construction: Analysis of an attachment-excavation model
- EngineeringPloS one
- 2018
An agent-based model, the attachment-excavation model, is proposed, in which worker honeybees are classified into attachers who secrete and attach wax, and excavators who excise the attached wax, which concludes that honeybees utilize self-organization to achieve complexity during the first stage of honeycomb construction.
Structure of Fejes Tóth cells in natural honey bee combs
- BiologyApidologie
- 2022
An analysis of the structure of Fejes Tóth cells in the natural combs of the Chinese bee, Apis cerana cerana (Hymenoptera: Apidae), and the Italian bee,Apis mellifera ligustica (Hymanoptera): Apidae found no significant differences in the diameter and depth of FeJes Tâth cells and three-rhombus cells.
The bee Tetragonula builds its comb like a crystal
- Materials ScienceJournal of the Royal Society Interface
- 2020
It is shown that the same excitable-medium dynamics governs both crystal nucleation and growth and comb construction in Tetragonula, so that a minimal coupled-map lattice model based on crystal growth explains how these bees produce the structures seen in their bee combs.
Standard methods for Apis mellifera beeswax research
- BiologyJournal of Apicultural Research
- 2019
This article provides a detailed description of the methods for investigating wax scales, comb construction and growth pattern, cell properties, chemical composition, and chemical composition of beeswax using different analytical tools, as well as the analytical procedures for provenancing Beeswax and beeswAX-derived compounds based on the hydrogen isotope ratio (IRMS).
Social wasps repair emergent topological defects
- Materials SciencebioRxiv
- 2021
It is shown that Polistes wattii, an open nesting paper wasp species, builds planar hexagonal structures, and that their nests exhibit short-range hexagonal order but no long-range order akin to amorphous materials.
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