Organized groups may have cognitive properties that differ from those of the individuals who constitute the group. — E. Hutchins (1995)

The result is that thousands of individuals, independently responding to local cues and acting accordingly, permit the colony to achieve a finely-tuned response to the conditions it experiences. Like the “marvelous and beautiful adjustments of the organism” that comprise the “wisdom of the body," honey bees and other social insects demonstrate a collective “wisdom of the colony.”— Camazine S (1992) 

note: Apparently Camazine coined the phrase “wisdom of the colony," picked up by Seeley for his book "Wisdom of the Hive."

PLB

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