Asian Honey Bees: Biology, Conservation and Human Interactions
by Benjamin P. Oldroyd and Siriwat Wongsiri
Harvard University Press: 2006.

reviewed by Francis L. W. Ratnieks
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v442/n7100/full/442249a.html

excerpts:

> These studies have also discovered examples of nature at its most
wonderful, of which two deserve a mention here. 

> Workers of A. cerana defend their nest against giant hornets by encasing
the hornet in a living ball of bees, which generate heat and literally cook
the hornet to death before it can send a pheromone signal to recruit more
hornets to the attack. Indeed, the scout hornet's pheromone alerts the bees. 

> Colonies of giant honeybees, A. dorsata, often migrate 100 km. At certain
times of the year the bees abandon their nesting trees, flying to better
areas for a season before returning. Genetic studies show that the same
colony with the same queen may return months later to the same tree.

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