| Description |
viii, 281 pages : illustrations ; 27 cm |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 227-267) and indexes. |
| Contents |
Introduction -- The origin and evolutionary history of bees -- Form and function: honey bee anatomy -- Development and nutrition -- Nest architecture -- The age-related activities of worker bees -- Other worker activities -- The chemical world of honey bees -- Communication and orientation -- The collection of food -- Reproduction: swarming and supersedure -- Drones, queens, and mating -- The biology of temperate and tropical honey bees. |
| Summary |
In a bright and engaging style Winston probes the dynamics of the honey bee's social organization. He recreates for us the complex infrastructure of the nest, describes the highly specialized behavior of workers, queens, and drones, and examines in detail the remarkable ability of the honey bee colony to regulate its functions according to events within and outside the nest. Winston integrates into his discussion the results of recent studies, bringing into sharp focus topics of current bee research. These include the exquisite architecture of the nest and its relation to bee physiology; the intricate division of labor and the relevance of a temporal caste structure to efficient functioning of the colony; and, finally, the life-death struggles of swarming, supersedure, and mating that mark the reproductive cycle of the honey bee. |
|
The Biology of the Honey Bee not only reviews the basic aspects of social behavior, ecology, anatomy, physiology, and genetics, it also summarizes major controversies in contemporary honey bee research, such as the importance of kin recognition in the evolution of social behavior and the role of the well-known dance language in honey bee communication. Thorough, well-illustrated, and lucidly written, this book will for many years be a valuable resource for scholars, students, and beekeepers alike. |
| Subject |
Honeybee.
|
|
Bees.
|
|
Bees (DNLM)D001516
|
|
Apis mellifera (species) (CStmoGRI)aat300375639
|
|
Apoidea (superfamily) (CStmoGRI)aat300310662
|
|
Bees. (OCoLC)fst00829774
|
|
Honeybee. (OCoLC)fst00959952
|
|
Himenopteros (Biologia)
|
|
Insecta. Hymenoptera (Sistematica)
|
|
Insecta. Diptera (Sistematica)
|
| Indexed Term |
Honey-bees |
| Other Form: |
Online version: Winston, Mark L. Biology of the honey bee. Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 1987 (OCoLC)645917458 |
| ISBN |
0674074084 (alk. paper) |
|
9780674074088 (alk. paper) |
|
0674074092 |
|
9780674074095 |
|
0067407408 |
|
