Honeybee Ecology: A Study of Adaptation in Social Life
Abstract
The book presents honeybees as a model system for investigating advanced social life among insects from an evolutionary perspective. Originally published in 1985. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
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The bee faces a complex sequential decision-making task: each action affects the ability to perform future actions.
“Finally, the bee faces a complex sequential decision-making task: each action affects the ability to perform future actions, both in terms of where the bee ends up and simply because foraging for food itself takes energy [24,25].”
From Phenomenal interface theory: a model for basal consciousness (2025) · cites this paper as [24]
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“Sterile female worker bees predominate within colonies in which they initially clean cells, rear brood, and store food, then leave the hive, and forage for pollen and nectar (5).”
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“Apis are known to forage over greater distances than the native bees found in this study, often ranging to several kilometers (Seeley 1985).”
Establishment of Characteristic Gut Bacteria during Development of the Honeybee Worker
Martinson, V. G., Moy, J. K., & Moran, N. A. (2012) · Applied and Environmental Microbiology · doi:10.1128/aem.07810-11 · Cited by 580 · see citing works
“Adult workers perform a succession of tasks as they age, which may expose them to different microorganisms: young bees nurse larvae within the hive, whereas older bees forage pollen and nectar from flowers outside the hive (1, 17, 49).”
Routes of Acquisition of the Gut Microbiota of the Honey Bee Apis mellifera
Powell, J. E., Martinson, V. G., Urban‐Mead, K. R., & Moran, N. A. (2014) · Applied and Environmental Microbiology · doi:10.1128/aem.01861-14 · Cited by 547 · see citing works
“Although healthy workers are reported to defecate outside the hive exclusively (36, 37), our findings suggest that defecation and coprophagy occur inside the hive or that workers acquire gut bacteria through anal trophallaxis or anal grooming.”
BackgroundA landscape‐scale study of bumble bee foraging range and constancy, using harmonic radar
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“Referring to honey bee recruitment studies, Seeley (1985) pointed out that `honey bees rarely forage within 500 meters of their nest, but in setting up experiments, bee researchers rarely work beyond 300 meters from their hives'.”
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“Most species of stingless bees have a foraging range smaller than that of the honeybee, which may enhance foraging efficiency in confined spaces (Visscher and Seeley, 1982; Seeley, 1985; Katayama, 1987; Kakutani et al., 1993).”
BackgroundHoney Bee Nest Thermoregulation: Diversity Promotes Stability
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The Biology of the Dance Language
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“The optimal temperature for honey bee brood development is 32◦C–36◦C (19, 43, 44, 98, 132), and prolonged exposure to temperatures outside this range can cause developmental abnormalities, disease, and even death (9, 19, 31, 51, 132).”
BackgroundSocial Wasp (Hymenoptera: Vespidae) Foraging Behavior
Richter, M. R. (2000) · Annual Review of Entomology · doi:10.1146/annurev.ento.45.1.121 · Cited by 415 · see citing works
Cresswell, J. (2010) · Ecotoxicology · doi:10.1007/s10646-010-0566-0 · Cited by 398 · see citing works
“Honey bees are doubtless routinely exposed to all of these stressors (Mullin et al. 2010; Seeley 1985).”
Regulation of honey bee age polyethism by juvenile hormone
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The role of Varroa and viral pathogens in the collapse of honeybee colonies: a modelling approach
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“Although honeybees have many defences against diseases, such as hygienic behaviour or the production of anti-microbial substances (Seeley 1985), colonies still suffer from a number of diseases and pests (Bailey & Ball 1991; Schmid-Hempel 1998).”
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Dead or Alive: Deformed Wing Virus and Varroa destructor Reduce the Life Span of Winter Honeybees
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“It has been previously shown that a minimum of 5,000 workers is required to survive winter in central and northern Europe (40, 44) in order to maintain the brood temperature around 34°C, or above 18°C in broodless bee clusters (51, 64).”
BackgroundDiversity, threats and conservation of native bees in the Neotropics
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Collective decision making through food recruitment
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“Bees constitute a diverse group of insects that have evolved remarkably different lifestyles and social behaviors (46, 47), and yet they share a large number of microbial commensals and pathogens (33, 48, 49).”
BackgroundInformation flow, opinion polling and collective intelligence in house–hunting social insects
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“Although honeybees have been reported to forage up to 10 km from their nests, most foraging apparently takes place within a radius of 5 km from the colony (Visscher and Seeley 1982; Seeley 1985).”
BackgroundRestoration Biology: A Population Biology Perspective
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Social foraging in honey bees: how nectar foragers assess their colony's nutritional status
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Self-citationSurface hydrocarbons of queen eggs regulate worker reproduction in a social insect
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“…have been found (reviewed in Calderone and Page 1991; Page and Robinson 1991; Beshers and Fewell 2001) and most bees specialize on either pollen or nectar on a given trip (Seeley 1985, 1995), over the course of their foraging career, most bees appear to be generalists (Seeley and Towne 1992).”
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“Division of labor in the honey bee, Apis mellifera, has been extensively studied (R6sch 1925, 1927, 1930; Lindauer 1953a, b; Seeley 1982; and reviewed by Free 1965; Seeley 1985).”
BackgroundPesticide Exposure Assessment Paradigm for Solitary Bees
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Standard methods for toxicology research inApis mellifera
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Cuticular hydrocarbons correlated with reproductive status in a queenless ant
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Hot bees in empty broodnest cells: heating from within
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“Honeybee (Apis mellifera) colonies maintain stable brood nest temperatures of 33–36°C (Seeley, 1985) even when ambient temperatures reach extremes of– 80°C to +60°C (Lindauer, 1954; Southwick, 1987).”
Pollen and gene flow in fragmented habitats
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Functional Organization of Appetitive Learning and Memory in a Generalist Pollinator, the Honey Bee
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A quantitative study of worker reproduction in honey bee colonies
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Data feature selection based on Artificial Bee Colony algorithm
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The flow of jelly within a honeybee colony
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“The other main classes within the system of division of labour (R6sch 1925, 1930; Lindauer 1952; Seeley 1985; Winston 1987), especially the foragers, consume proportionally less pollen.”
Honey bee foraging distance depends on month and forage type
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“They live in large perennial colonies that ensure high local pollination throughout the flowering season (Seeley 1985) and have a vast foraging area that enhances gene flow in plant communities (Roubik 1989; Free 1993).”
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Cliff Swallow Colonies as Information Centers
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“Guarding probably did not decline to zero because honey bees suffer robbing and harm from other species and must remain vigilant to such threats (Seeley, 1985).”
BackgroundChen, C., Liu, Z., Pan, Q., Chen, X., Wang, H., Guo, H., Liu, S., Lü, H., Tian, S., Li, R., et al. (2016) · Molecular Biology and Evolution · doi:10.1093/molbev/msw017 · Cited by 157 · see citing works
“…doi:10.1093/molbev/msw017 Advance Access publication January 27, 2016 1337 particular A. m. mellifera (Maurizio and Hodges 1950; Fluri et al. 1977; Seeley 1985, and references therein; Southwick and Heldmaier 1987; Ruttner 1988; Amdam et al. 2005; Meixner et al. 2007; Seehuus et al. 2013).”
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Colony Integration in Honey Bees: Mechanisms of Behavioral Reversion
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Pollinators of tropical dioecious angiosperms
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Intracolony chemical communication in social insects
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“Both of these state variables fluctuate considerably during the year; colonies in temperate climates show low populations and brood levels during the winter, increased population and brood through the spring, reduced levels following late spring swarming (when a majority of the workers and a queen leave the nest to fo…”
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“Queen signal hypothesis: Workers respond to the queen signal by remaining sterile provided that this serves their own inclusive fitness interests [39, 75, 76] Queen control hypothesis: Workers are manipulated to remain sterile against their own reproductive interests [21, 77–80] Best empirical support for”
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“This is probably because of foraging behaviour, as described by Seeley (1985) and Winston (1987).”
BackgroundLife expectancy and onset of foraging in the honeybee (Apis mellifera)
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“Other factors, such as feeding during the larval stage (Free, 1961; Janmaat and Winston, 2000) or stress-inducing factors applied to colony members (Seeley, 1985; Huang and Robinson, 1992, 1996), also affect honeybee worker lifespan and, through this, the task ontogeny.”
Genetic variation within social insect colonies reduces parasite load
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“Honey bees provide some of the most striking examples of multiple mating behaviour with females mating and using sperm from 10^20, or even more, males (Seeley 1985; Oldroyd et al. 1995; Moritz et al. 1995; Boomsma & Ratnieks 1996; Crozier & Pamilo 1996).”
BackgroundImpacts of honeybee density on crop yield: A meta‐analysis
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“Between 2% and 10% of the total population size of the colony are available daily for foraging (Seeley, 1985), and usually concerne the older individuals, because foraging is the last function of the worker (Menzel et al., 2005).”
BackgroundA preliminary study of the epidemiological factors related to honey bee colony loss in Spain
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Power over reproduction in social Hymenoptera
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“Fecundity costs are probably also the reason why the honeybee females in worker cells never develop as small queens: the fecundity of such queens would almost certainly be too low to sustain their large colonies of over 35,000 bees (Seeley 1985; Winston 1987).”
BackgroundCutler, G. C., Scott‐Dupree, C. D., Sultan, M., McFarlane, A. D., & Brewer, L. W. (2014) · PeerJ · doi:10.7717/peerj.652 · Cited by 128 · see citing works
Facultative expression of hygienic behaviour of honey bees in relation to disease resistance
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“As little or no brood was emerging in the observation hives, the introduced bees comprised the majority of (if not the only) young bees in the colony from two to seven days old and were therefore of the age known to perform cell cleaning behaviour (Seeley, 1985; Winston, 1987).”
BackgroundPage, R. E., Robinson, G. E., Fondrk, M. K., et al. (1995) · Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology · doi:10.1007/bf00177334 · Cited by 129 · see citing works
Han, P., Niu, C., Lei, C., et al. (2010) · Ecotoxicology · doi:10.1007/s10646-010-0546-4 · Cited by 128 · see citing works
“Learning performance is of primary importance in honey bees when they become foragers (Seeley 1985; Menzel 1993; Hammer and Menzel 1995).”
BackgroundThe hidden cost of information in collective foraging
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Senescence of immune defence in Bombus workers
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“They nest in rock crevices, caves, hollow trees or earth cavities (Seeley 1985).”
A Smart Sensor-Based Measurement System for Advanced Bee Hive Monitoring
Cecchi, S., Spinsante, S., Terenzi, A., et al. (2020) · Sensors · doi:10.3390/s20092726 · Cited by 122 · see citing works
“As reported in [60–62], a correct temperature inside the hive can generate a significant decrease in the mortality rate of the colony and, at same time, it can increase honey production by reducing the internal consumption.”
ResultComparisons of forager distributions from matched honey bee colonies in suburban environments
Waddington, K. D., Herbert, T. J., Visscher, P. K., et al. (1994) · Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology · doi:10.1007/bf00165845 · Cited by 122 · see citing works
“The data of Seeley (1988) indicated that bees can find small isolated food patches, suggesting that a search, even over a large area, is likely to be complete.”
BackgroundCaste fate conflict in swarm-founding social Hymenoptera: an inclusive fitness analysis
Wenseleers, T., Ratnieks, F. L. W., & BILLEN, J. P. J. (2003) · Journal of Evolutionary Biology · doi:10.1046/j.1420-9101.2003.00574.x · Cited by 122 · see citing works
“Apis mellifera, for example, produces about 15–25 queens vs. 150 000 workers over one season when swarming occurs (Seeley, 1985; Winston, 1987).”
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Mechanisms of thermal stability during flight in the honeybee Apis mellifera
Roberts, S. P., & Harrison, J. F. (1999) · Journal of Experimental Biology · doi:10.1242/jeb.202.11.1523 · Cited by 118 · see citing works
Within-nest temporal polyethism in the honey bee
Johnson, B. R. (2007) · Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology · doi:10.1007/s00265-007-0503-2 · Cited by 116 · see citing works
Extrapolating from Honeybees to Bumblebees in Pesticide Risk Assessment
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Stingless Bee (Apidae: Apinae: Meliponini) Ecology
Roubik, D. W. (2022) · Annual Review of Entomology · doi:10.1146/annurev-ento-120120-103938 · Cited by 112 · see citing works
Beyond 16S rRNA Community Profiling: Intra-Species Diversity in the Gut Microbiota
Ellegaard, K., & Engel, P. (2016) · Frontiers in Microbiology · doi:10.3389/fmicb.2016.01475 · Cited by 110 · see citing works
“For example, honeybees go through distinct life-stages and perform different tasks within the colony, which is also associated with distinct diets (Seeley, 1985).”
Territory defense by the ant Azteca trigona: maintenance of an arboreal ant mosaic
Adams, E. S. (1994) · Oecologia · doi:10.1007/bf00323150 · Cited by 108 · see citing works
Giray, T., & Robinson, G. E. (1994) · Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology · doi:10.1007/bf00167054 · Cited by 107 · see citing works
Statistical guidelines forApis melliferaresearch
Pirk, C. W. W., de Miranda, J. R., Kramer, M., Murray, T. E., Nazzi, F., Dave Shutler, A., van der Steen, J. J. M., & van Dooremalen, C. (2013) · Journal of Apicultural Research · doi:10.3896/ibra.1.52.4.13 · Cited by 108 · see citing works
“Adapted from: van der Steen et al. (2012). shaping combs take place all over frames (Seeley, 1985).”
Museum samples reveal rapid evolution by wild honey bees exposed to a novel parasite
Mikheyev, A. S., Tin, M. M. Y., Arora, J., & Seeley, T. D. (2015) · Nature Communications · doi:10.1038/ncomms8991 · Cited by 100 · see citing works
Self-citationSendova‐Franks, A. B., & Franks, N. R. (1993) · Bulletin of Mathematical Biology · doi:10.1007/bf02460295 · Cited by 123 · see citing works
Rouzé, R., Moné, A., Delbac, F., Belzunces, L., & Blot, N. (2019) · Microbes and Environments · doi:10.1264/jsme2.me18169 · Cited by 102 · see citing works
Engel, M. S. (2001) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.98.4.1661 · Cited by 101 · see citing works
Leadership and innovation: Learning from the best
Bel, R. (2009) · Global Business and Organizational Excellence · doi:10.1002/joe.20308 · Cited by 99 · see citing works
- Authors
- Seeley, T. D.
- Corresponding author
- Seeley, Thomas D.
- ORCID
- Seeley, Thomas D.
- Venue
- Princeton University Press eBooks
- Publisher
- Princeton University Press
- Published
- 1985-12-31
- OpenAlex
- W4248931386
- Cited by
- 635
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 16 · 2025: 14 · 2024: 21 · 2023: 16 · 2022: 21 · 2021: 28 · 2020: 23 · 2019: 20 · 2018: 21 · 2017: 23 · 2016: 14 · 2015: 14 · 2014: 20 · 2013: 28 · 2012: 18
- FWCI
- 5.67
- Type
- book
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Princeton University Press eBooks (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Insect and Arachnid Ecology and Behavior
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics › Animal Behavior and Reproduction
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics › Plant and animal studies
- Keywords
- Apis mellifera, social insects, insect social behavior, evolution of sociality, eusociality, bee ecology
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
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