Mike wrote:

>so if they were in Australia, they would be walking to the left I assume.  


Interesting question, and I had a related one that I meant to ask, depending on feedback.  Mine is:

Is 'walking to the right' genetically controlled or environmentally controlled (Coriolis effect to Mike's question above), and, if genetic, as in humans, is there a minority percentage of colonies that 'walk to the left' and do other things different directionally than the majority of colonies?

For example, I use mouse excluders on my hives.  They are a commonly available variety - metal, with round openings and a slider on the left side (when standing behind the hive), that can be used to increase the opening to about a third of the hive width or close it off completely.  I typically leave them on year-round, unless a skunk manages to figure out how to get through my electric fence and knocks them off, at which time I typically wait until fall to re-apply.  What I find is that, obviously, 90%+ of the bees enter and exit through the wide slider opening, while only a few use the holes.  Inside, that translates to the bulk of the colony being off-center to the left, closer to the opening, and most new comb being built left to right (again, looking from the rear of the hive).  Occasionally, a colony will build right to left, which means bees travel more from the main entrance to the comb.  Was wondering if they are 'left-handed' or it is just 'flip of the coin' chance.  

This isn't earth-shaking stuff, and I doubt people focus on this sort of thing, but wondered if anyone had seen examples of reverse lateral brain asymmetry.  The article below reports on an interesting study done on bees ("Antenna Antics: Honeybees Are 'Righties'"), but it doesn't address other possible aspects of righthandedness:

http://www.livescience.com/37790-bees-use-right-antenna.html

An excerpt:

"When bees are forced to interact with only their left antennas, they have trouble bee-having: Just as humans shake with their right hands, bees also greet each other by predominantly using their right antennas.

A new study found that when pairs of bees interact solely with their right antennas, they approach each other and begin interacting more quickly, and relate more positively to each other — for instance by extending their tongue, or proboscis. When they interact only with their left antennas, on the other hand, they are much more likely to respond negatively, arching their body into a C-shape so that their stingers and mandibles are pointed at the other bees, the study found.

What does it mean? The findings suggest that bees prefer to use their right antennas in social situations to better relate to one another and to pick up on certain "social cues," said Giorgio Vallortigara, a researcher at Italy's University of Trento."


My sister, who is a 'radical' sinistralist, would be very distressed to read the above.


Bill
Claremont, NH USA

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