Overview
Honey bees have been described as exceptionally clever, well-organized, mutualistic, collaborative, busy, efficient--in short a perfect society. While the colony is indeed a marvel of harmonious, efficient organization, it also has a considerable dark side. Authors Robin Moritz and Robin Crewe write about the life history of the honey bee, Apis mellifera, highlighting conflict rather than harmony, failure rather than success, from the perspective of the individual worker in the colony. When one looks carefully, the honey bee colony is far from being perfect. As with any complex social system, honeybee societies are prone to error, robbery, cheating, and social parasitism. Nevertheless, the hive gets by remarkably well in spite of many seemingly odd biological features. The perfection that is perceived to exist in the honeybee's social organization is the function of a focus on the colony as a whole rather than exploring the idiosyncrasies of its individual members. The Dark Side of the Hive thus focuses on the role of the individual rather than that of the collective. Moritz and Crewe dissect the various careers that individual male and female honey bees can take and their role in colony organization. Competition between individuals using both physical and chemical force drives colonial organization. This book deals with individual mistakes, maladaptations and evolutionary dead-ends that are also part of the bees' life. The story told about these dark sides of the colony spans the full range of biological disciplines ranging from genomics to systems biology.
Full Product Details
Author: Robin Moritz (Professor of Molecular Ecology, Professor of Molecular Ecology, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg) ,
Robin Crewe (Senior Research Fellow, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship, University of Pretoria)
Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc
Imprint: Oxford University Press Inc
Dimensions:
Width: 23.60cm
, Height: 2.00cm
, Length: 16.00cm
Weight: 0.544kg
ISBN: 9780190872281
ISBN 10: 0190872284
Pages: 208
Publication Date: 29 November 2018
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: To order
Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us.
Reviews
This book is a refreshing account of some of the more fascinating and occasionally maladaptive aspects of the biology of the honey bee -- Mike Picker , Transactions of the Royal Society of South Africa
This book is a refreshing account of some of the more fascinating and occasionally maladaptive aspects of the biology of the honey bee * Mike Picker, Transactions of the Royal Society of South Africa *
Author Information
Robin Moritz is Emeritus Professor of Molecular Ecology at the Martin-Luther University Halle-Wittenberg. Robin Crewe is Emeritus Vice-principal of the University of Pretoria
