6.22 Comb Building Flashcards
What resources are needed to fill a nest with combs?
7.5kg honey –> 1.2kg wax –> 100,000 cells = a medium sized nest
How do the bees sense gravity when constructing comb?
Gravity receptor hairs between joints
What are the requirements to produce wax?
It must be warm enough to make wax malleable, there has to be an energy source to metabolise into wax
How are the wax scales produced and manipulated?
Wax flakes are secreted by the wax glands which harden. They are skwered by the hind leg and passed to the foreleg. They are mixed with saliva and kneaded.
What is festooning and how does it help?
It is the chains of bees. They pass wax flakes between one another. It also helps to produce a suitable microcliamte too. Jurgen Tautz believes that they do this across the entire nest.
How is comb constructed?
Wax is intially deposited in ridges and then sculpting begins. Cells start off circular and then become hexagonal. They start with a hemispherical base. The hexagonal shapes occur as all the bees are pushing out on all other sides
What role does antennae play a role in comb building?
The worker will press her anteanne on the cell wall and note its elastic resitance to test its thickness
How does fine scale detailing effect comb construction?
There is adding, removing or reposition fo exisiting wax structures
Is wax recycled?
They do not tear old combs down apart from queen cells. Wax cappings are recycled
What are the 3 mains teps to comb consturction?
- Additive stage – wax is added in small amounts. Tiny specs of wax are deposited on a surface. The base of the cell starts spherical and becomes a tube as it lengths.
- Subtractive stage – wax is removed from the wrong place.
- Geometric stage – the workers know the diameter of worker and drones’ cells. Mandibles scrape the wax and thin it out and attenuate against the wall. If its flexes too much then it gets thicker, or it may get made thinner. The bees are pushing outwards on the walls and other bees do this to the walls in neighbouring cells (forms hexagonal shape)
What are the indivudal building blocks of comb?
Cells are not units of construction, just like your house has rooms, but the room is not a unit of construction the bricks are. Bricklaying in bees is repetitive and rule drive and the next brick is guided by the previous (Vince Gallo research).
Is comb construction flexbile or rule based?
There is flexability due to the irregular nest size and shape. There are alogrithms for placing wax flakes on top of each other
Is comb built all at once?
Only when it is economic to do so. The benefit must outweigh the cost. When a swarm moves into a new cavity the benefit outweighs the cost as they can’t do anything without comb. When nectar is scarace no new comb is produced.
What are the parameters permitting new comb constructon?
The colony has filled its comb above a threshold AND the colony is busy foraging. This way it establaishes optimal comb build timing.
How do workers combat drone and worker cells when building?
Worker and drone cells are built together to be more unfirom and stronger. They will build intermediate sized cells along the merge ine by gradually increasing wall length. Build cells with 4,5,7,8 and 9.
What is the difference ebtween comb merges and transitions?
A transition is where they build comb from drone to workers, a merge is where two pieces join together.
How do bees combat building comb in separate places?
They will need to merge the constructions togheter.
Define stigmergy?
Responding to whatever the work piece/substrate is in front of you The trace of an action left on a medium stimulates the performance of a subsequent action. A behaviour response to a stimulus. Bees do this by not telling each other how to build the comb but one will find it and continue off where another has left off.
Are there any feedback loops associated with drone comb?
Yes - a negative feedback mechanisim exists where drone comb construction is halted I drone comb is already present. Workers need direct contract with the drone comb to be aware of it
Describe properties of comb
• Workers are 5.3 mm in diameter whilst drones are 6.3 mm
• They are angled 13 degrees upwards from the base to stop honey running out
• Rims are made of thickened wax.
• Cell walls are 0.07mm thick
• Distance between comb is 0.95cm
Why hexagonal comb?
It tesselates so doesn’t leave empty spaces. Volume to perimeter ratio
What is the evolutionary history of hexagonal comb?
Bees and wasps independelty evolved hexagons over 179 million years. Where the honey bees produce the consturction material they have control over its properties
Why is honey stored at the top of the comb and why is the brood nest in the centre?
It is more structually sound. Propolis is used to strengthen the com where it connects the ceiling. The brood is in the centre as it is most valauble and needs the greatest heat. Drone brood is on the outside as it is more expendiable
In relation to the superorgnaisim what is the comb?
It is the superorganisims skeleton, sensory organ immune system and nervous system
What are the uses of the comb?
Shelter, nursey, telephone system, a larder, colony speciifc identity
What percengage of wild comb is drone comb?
0.17
Wat happens to comb construction when the colony is queenless?
They will build drone comb and only when a new queen starts laying will they build worker comb again/ Hoping for the best but prparing for the worst.
