'Who'll stop the rain? Umbrella behavior in honeybees'

摘要

With all deference to Creedence Clearwater Revival's version of the song that poses the above question, honey bees clearly have known the answer all along. The western honey bee, Apis melliferu, belongs to a subgroup within the genus Apis well-known for the habit of "cavity-nesting." For an example of what that term means, take a look outside at your apiary and notice the cavity-containing boxes that you call beehives. In the absence of beekeepers, honey bees typically use cavities found in trees, incliff faces or somewhere else. While cavities provide a measure of protection from predators and inclement weather conditions, there are times in the colony life cycle when there is no shelter from the storm, i.e. during swarming, Honey bee swarms facean uncertain world from the time they leave the old nest site until they "choose" a new cavity to remodel as a home. What happens to a hanging swarm when it is assailed by a downpour of rain? What mechanisms do honey bees have to deal with an onslaught such as they never encounter in the cozy cavity in which they normally reside? In a very interesting report, two researchers at Cornell University performed a series of experiments to address these and other questions (Cully and Seeley, 2004).