Honeybee Ecology

Honeybee Ecology PDF Author: Thomas D. Seeley
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400857872
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 213

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Book Description
The book presents honeybees as a model system for investigating advanced social life among insects from an evolutionary perspective. Originally published in 1985. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Honeybee Ecology

Honeybee Ecology PDF Author: Thomas D. Seeley
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400857872
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 213

Get Book

Book Description
The book presents honeybees as a model system for investigating advanced social life among insects from an evolutionary perspective. Originally published in 1985. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

The Biology of the Honey Bee

The Biology of the Honey Bee PDF Author: Mark L. Winston
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674744209
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 300

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Book Description
From ancient cave paintings of honey bee nests to modern science’s richly diversified investigation of honey bee biology and its applications, the human imagination has long been captivated by the mysterious and highly sophisticated behavior of this paragon among insect societies. In the first broad treatment of honey bee biology to appear in decades, Mark Winston provides rare access to the world of this extraordinary insect. 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.

Ecology and Natural History of Tropical Bees

Ecology and Natural History of Tropical Bees PDF Author: David W. Roubik
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521429092
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 528

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Book Description
Humans have been fascinated by bees for centuries. Bees display a wide spectrum of behaviours and ecological roles that have provided biologists with a vast amount of material for study. Among the types observed are both social and solitary bees, those that either pollinate or destroy flowers, and those that display traits allowing them to survive underwater. Others fly mainly at night, and some build their nests either in the ground or in the tallest rain forest trees. This highly acclaimed book summarises and interprets research from around the world on tropical bee diversity and draws together major themes in ecology, natural history and evolution. The numerous photographs and line illustrations, and the large reference section, qualify this book as a field guide and reference for workers in tropical and temperate research. The fascinating ecology and natural history of these bees will also provide absorbing reading for other ecologists and naturalists. This book was first published in 1989.

Honeybee Democracy

Honeybee Democracy PDF Author: Thomas D. Seeley
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 140083595X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
Honeybees make decisions collectively--and democratically. Every year, faced with the life-or-death problem of choosing and traveling to a new home, honeybees stake everything on a process that includes collective fact-finding, vigorous debate, and consensus building. In fact, as world-renowned animal behaviorist Thomas Seeley reveals, these incredible insects have much to teach us when it comes to collective wisdom and effective decision making. A remarkable and richly illustrated account of scientific discovery, Honeybee Democracy brings together, for the first time, decades of Seeley's pioneering research to tell the amazing story of house hunting and democratic debate among the honeybees. In the late spring and early summer, as a bee colony becomes overcrowded, a third of the hive stays behind and rears a new queen, while a swarm of thousands departs with the old queen to produce a daughter colony. Seeley describes how these bees evaluate potential nest sites, advertise their discoveries to one another, engage in open deliberation, choose a final site, and navigate together--as a swirling cloud of bees--to their new home. Seeley investigates how evolution has honed the decision-making methods of honeybees over millions of years, and he considers similarities between the ways that bee swarms and primate brains process information. He concludes that what works well for bees can also work well for people: any decision-making group should consist of individuals with shared interests and mutual respect, a leader's influence should be minimized, debate should be relied upon, diverse solutions should be sought, and the majority should be counted on for a dependable resolution. An impressive exploration of animal behavior, Honeybee Democracy shows that decision-making groups, whether honeybee or human, can be smarter than even the smartest individuals in them.

The Lives of Bees

The Lives of Bees PDF Author: Thomas D. Seeley
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691166765
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 370

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Book Description
Seeley, a world authority on honey bees, sheds light on why wild honey bees are still thriving while those living in managed colonies are in crisis. Drawing on the latest science as well as insights from his own pioneering fieldwork, he describes in extraordinary detail how honey bees live in nature and shows how this differs significantly from their lives under the management of beekeepers. Seeley presents an entirely new approach to beekeeping--Darwinian Beekeeping--which enables honey bees to use the toolkit of survival skills their species has acquired over the past thirty million years, and to evolve solutions to the new challenges they face today. He shows beekeepers how to use the principles of natural selection to guide their practices, and he offers a new vision of how beekeeping can better align with the natural habits of honey bees.

What If There Were No Bees?

What If There Were No Bees? PDF Author: Suzanne Slade
Publisher: Capstone
ISBN: 1404860193
Category : Agricultural ecology
Languages : en
Pages : 14

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Book Description
Talks about each habitat and shows what would happen if the food chain was broken.

Where Honeybees Thrive

Where Honeybees Thrive PDF Author: Heather Swan
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 0271080736
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 287

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Book Description
Colony Collapse Disorder, ubiquitous pesticide use, industrial agriculture, habitat reduction—these are just a few of the issues causing unprecedented trauma in honeybee populations worldwide. In this artfully illustrated book, Heather Swan embarks on a narrative voyage to discover solutions to—and understand the sources of—the plight of honeybees. Through a lyrical combination of creative nonfiction and visual imagery, Where Honeybees Thrive tells the stories of the beekeepers, farmers, artists, entomologists, ecologists, and other advocates working to stem the damage and reverse course for this critical pollinator. Using her own quest for understanding as a starting point, Swan highlights the innovative projects and strategies these groups employ. Her mosaic approach to engaging with the environment not only reveals the incredibly complex political ecology in which bees live—which includes human and nonhuman actors alike—but also suggests ways of comprehending and tackling a host of other conflicts between postindustrial society and the natural world. Each chapter closes with an illustrative full-color gallery of bee-related artwork. A luminous journey from the worlds of honey producers, urban farmers, and mead makers of the United States to those of beekeepers of Sichuan, China, and researchers in southern Africa, Where Honeybees Thrive traces the global web of efforts to secure a sustainable future for honeybees—and ourselves.

Stingless Bees

Stingless Bees PDF Author: Christoph Grüter
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030600904
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 394

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Book Description
Stingless bees (Meliponini) are the largest and most diverse group of social bees, yet their largely tropical distribution means that they are less studied than their relatives, the bumble bees and honey bees. Stingless bees produce honey and collect pollen from tens of thousands of tropical plant species and, in the process, provide critical pollination services in the tropics. Like many other insects, they are struggling with new human-made challenges like habitat destruction, climate change and new diseases. This book provides an overview of stingless bee biology, with chapters on the evolutionary history, nesting biology, colony organisation and division of labour of stingless bees. In addition, it explores their defence strategies, foraging ecology, and varied communication methods. Accordingly, the book offers an accessible introduction and reference guide for students, researchers and laypeople interested in the biology of bees.

Vanishing Bees

Vanishing Bees PDF Author: Sainath Suryanarayanan
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
ISBN: 0813574617
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 175

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Book Description
In 2005, beekeepers in the United States began observing a mysterious and disturbing phenomenon: once-healthy colonies of bees were suddenly collapsing, leaving behind empty hives full of honey and pollen. Over the following decade, widespread honeybee deaths—some of which have come to be called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD)—have continued to bedevil beekeepers and threaten the agricultural industries that rely on bees for pollination. Scientists continue to debate the causes of CCD, yet there is no clear consensus on how to best solve the problem. Vanishing Bees takes us inside the debates over widespread honeybee deaths, introducing the various groups with a stake in solving the mystery of CCD, including beekeepers, entomologists, growers, agrichemical companies, and government regulators. Drawing from extensive interviews and first-hand observations, Sainath Suryanarayanan and Daniel Lee Kleinman examine how members of each group have acquired, disseminated, and evaluated knowledge about CCD. In addition, they explore the often-contentious interactions among different groups, detailing how they assert authority, gain trust, and build alliances. As it explores the contours of the CCD crisis, Vanishing Bees considers an equally urgent question: what happens when farmers, scientists, beekeepers, corporations, and federal agencies approach the problem from different vantage points and cannot see eye-to-eye? The answer may have profound consequences for every person who wants to keep fresh food on the table.

Neurobiology of Chemical Communication

Neurobiology of Chemical Communication PDF Author: Carla Mucignat-Caretta
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 1466553413
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 614

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Book Description
Intraspecific communication involves the activation of chemoreceptors and subsequent activation of different central areas that coordinate the responses of the entire organism—ranging from behavioral modification to modulation of hormones release. Animals emit intraspecific chemical signals, often referred to as pheromones, to advertise their presence to members of the same species and to regulate interactions aimed at establishing and regulating social and reproductive bonds. In the last two decades, scientists have developed a greater understanding of the neural processing of these chemical signals. Neurobiology of Chemical Communication explores the role of the chemical senses in mediating intraspecific communication. Providing an up-to-date outline of the most recent advances in the field, it presents data from laboratory and wild species, ranging from invertebrates to vertebrates, from insects to humans. The book examines the structure, anatomy, electrophysiology, and molecular biology of pheromones. It discusses how chemical signals work on different mammalian and non-mammalian species and includes chapters on insects, Drosophila, honey bees, amphibians, mice, tigers, and cattle. It also explores the controversial topic of human pheromones. An essential reference for students and researchers in the field of pheromones, this is also an ideal resource for those working on behavioral phenotyping of animal models and persons interested in the biology/ecology of wild and domestic species.