( ow little attention the workers pay the...)Undergraduate research shows leaderless honeybee organizing

ow little attention the workers pay the queen – until it became time to go – to become airborne. Then they started interacting with her at very high rates, and performing the ‘worker piping’ signal on her. This interaction is a behavior that nobody had described before,” Schneider said.

Contrary to the popular conception of a colony controlled by instructions from its breeding queen mother, the research shows a picture of the queen as a passive egg layer whose own behavior is programmed, with changes dictated by signals delivered by older workers.

This does not mean, however, that the colony is controlled by a key group of experienced bees either. The worker bees that deliver the critical signals have short life-spans and tiny brains incapable of managing the colony the way a human village might be managed by a council of elders. Instead, critical strategic choices, such as the assessment that it is time to divide the colony and swarm, appear to be decided by the dynamics of the group itself. Social interactions, environmental pressures or group dynamics in some still-unknown way initiate a string of behaviors that effectively manage complex group activities.

“It is a real challenge to understand how bee colonies work, but it is also fascinating because they are so different. Evolutionarily, they got to the same point as humans – living in these highly organized societies that function with remarkable efficiency -- but they are organized so differently when you start digging into them,” Schneider said. “It’s interesting that these major differences can result in the same emergent social properties. It may tell us something about ourselves.”

'"/>

Source:University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Page: 1 2 3 4
Related biology news :

1. Columbia research lifts major hurdle to gene therapy for cancer
2. U of M researcher examines newly emerging deadly disease
3. NYU researchers simulate molecular biological clock
4. First atlas of key brain genes could speed research on cancer, neurological diseases
5. New research questions basic tenet of neuron function
6. Vital step in cellular migration described by UCSD medical researchers
7. ASU researchers finds novel chemistry at work to provide parrots vibrant red colors
8. UCSD researchers maintain stem cells without contaminated animal feeder layers
9. Why do insects stop breathing? To avoid damage from too much oxygen, say researchers
10. New protein discovered by Hebrew University researchers
11. First real-time view of developing neurons reveals surprises, say Stanford researchers