Is anyone out there in BEE-L land? It seems that all has been very quiet.
Has everyone gone on holiday? I was away for a while and had a most
splendid relax in Scandanavia after presenting, and before presenting
data at a conference on thermal biology in Tromso, Norway. The subjects
concerning bees were given by Ed Southwick on the honeybee colony as a
super-organism with special reference to its ability to thermoregulate
from very cold to very hot conditions, Makhdzir Mardan and I on the
thermoregulatory significance of yellow-rain, alias feces dropped en
masse by flying colonies of the giant Asiatic honeybee, Apis dorsata,
and myself on thermoregulation in arctic flowers and insects. Please
feel free to direct questions to any on us about our presentations.
 
While in Sweden and Norway, I was able to make more observations on the
movements of large bees on flowering trees, using Bumblebees, Bombus spp.
and linden, Tilia sp.. The linden was in splendid bloom everywhere we
went, and had a great bloom in this part of Canada too. I wonder if
the linden bloom is synchronized by year around the northern temperate
world. It is a tree notorious for not blooming every year and is an
excellent honey source in years when it blooms well. Anyway, the bees
behave in northern Europe just as they do in southern Canada, and the
carpenter bees, Xylocopa, do in Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Maldive
Islands.
 
Are there any BEE-Lers in anypart of the world where coconuts grow. If
so please contact me as I have some questions to ask.
 
Cheers to all and thanks,
 
Peter Kevan, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ont, N1G 2W1, Canada.