Bees for Development Journal 102
PHOTO © Bf D
RECENT RESEARCH
Bees mimic human brain neurones in decision making
In previous work, Thomas Seeley, Professor of Neurobiology and Behaviour at Cornell University (USA), clarified how scout bees in a honey bee swarm perform waggle dances to prompt other scout bees to inspect a promising site that has been found. In the new study, Seeley reports with five colleagues in the USA and UK, that scout bees also use inhibitory “stop signals” – a short buzz delivered with a head butt to the dancer – to inhibit the waggle dances produced by scouts advertising competing sites. The strength of the inhibition produced by each group of scouts is proportional to the group’s size. This inhibitory signalling helps ensure that only one of the sites is chosen. This is especially important for reaching a decision when two sites are equally good.
Previous research has shown that bees use stop signals to warn nest mates about such dangers as attacks at a food source. However this is the first study to show the use of stop signals in house-hunting decisions. “Such use of stop signals in decision making is analogous to how the nervous system works in complex brains”, said Seeley. “The brain has similar cross inhibitory signalling between neurones in decision-making circuits.” Co-authors Patrick Hogan and James Marshall of the University of Sheffield (UK) explored the implications of the bees’ cross-inhibitory signalling by modelling their collective decision-making process. Analysis showed that stop signalling helps bees to break deadlocks between two equally good sites and to avoid costly dithering. The study was funded by the Cornell Agricultural Experiment Station, the University of CaliforniaRiverside, and the UK Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council. The full report is published in Science 9 December 2011.
Source: Syl Kacapyr, Cornell University Press Release
We are delighted to announce that Professor Seeley has recently accepted our invitation to become a Patron of Bf D Trust. www.beesfordevelopment.org
Professor Tom Seeley at work in the field
LETTER
NOTICE BOARD
Inappropriate interventions
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I am a honey trader and exporter from Pakistan. A number of NGOs are working in the northern parts of our country to help beekeeping. Unfortunately many of them employ non-technical people and they are wasting huge funds given to them by donors from all over the world, as they know nothing about beekeeping. They give one hive per person, which anybody who understands beekeeping knows is a waste because one colony cannot survive on its own. Even if it does survive, the cost will be so high that the poor new beekeeper will just abandon the hive and walk away. I have tried to contact the NGOs and tell them that instead of this they should encourage people to work in a group and give them a number of hives, which will not only support them but will also support the colonies themselves. Just handing out a hive is not a solution - actually training people to become proper beekeepers is the most important way. But no-one is interested to do this. Instead they are happy that the funds are coming and are giving good reports to donors, so all seems well. Is there someone who really wants to do the job, which will give results in the end? I am not an NGO but I am willing to establish one, provided someone is really interested to support me. I do not want to earn anything from this project: instead I know that when it becomes successful I will get my income as the production of honey will increase in my country, and so my business will also improve. We would create an NGO and provide beekeepers with training towards selfsufficiency. We would also buy in advance their honey harvest.
Dr Ellahi Faisal, TKR Traders, Peshawar, Pakistan
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