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Date: | Sun, 5 Sep 2021 14:02:14 -0400 |
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Update, 2021
Perhaps the most magnificent animal building structure is the honeybee wax comb—a double-sided sheet of tessellated, near-horizontal hexagonal cells. The cells are built either side of a common backplane that forms a base for those to either side. This typically highly regular structure has been shown to be mathematically optimal to maximize storage space and stability while minimizing building material. However, Smith et al. show that bees also build various types of irregularly shaped and sized cells, for example when merging separate comb constructions. This raises the question of whether the bees’ innate behavioral repertoire contains multiple different routines for each shape, whether bees plan ahead to insert optimal shapes, or whether such diversity of structures could be explained by simple rules.
Gallo, V., & Chittka, L. (2021). Stigmergy versus behavioral flexibility and planning in honeybee comb construction. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118(33).
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