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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology

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From:
Peter L Borst <[log in to unmask]>
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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Wed, 24 Jul 2013 08:09:08 -0400
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> There is never a round cylinder in comb building.  Drawing foundation is undobtedly different from building comb, but I'd still be surprised to see "cylinders"....we've all seen just started foundation, and it's all hexes.

When discussing comb building, it is useless to restrict the topic to honey bees since there are myriad examples of comb building in other species of Hymenoptera. These formations have been optimized by evolution over millions of years. Examples of rudimentary cell building and advanced comb structure abound. Some, such as bumble bees, build spherical cells from collected materials. 

Others, such as wasps, build hexagonal cells. Studies of wasp nests show that comb is started with a single hexagonal cell, and more hexagons are added to the periphery, which disproves the idea that there is an interaction between the cells, as in soap bubbles. Honey bees also begin building hexagonal cells, the cells do not become hexagonal as they aggregate. 

The soap bubble observation is interesting in that it shows that the surface tension equalizes and imparts a hexagon structure on aggregations of flexible spheres (or cylinders). This would not happen, of course, with aggregates of non-flexible spheres, like soccer balls. The hexagon can naturally arise only in flexible material. In stiff material it is constructed deliberately.

Bottom line, honey bees and wasps are building hexagons, not cylinders, to form combs. Non-comb forming bees and wasps use cylinders.

See

Karsai, I., & Pénzes, Z. (1996). Intraspecific variation in the comb structure ofPolistes dominulusi parameters, maturation, nest size and cell arrangement. Insectes sociaux, 43(3), 277-296.

Karsai, I., & Pénzes, Z. (1993). Comb building in social wasps: self-organization and stigmergic script. Journal of theoretical biology, 161(4), 505-525.

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