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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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“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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Items 501–600 of 612
Yédomonhan, H., Adomou, A. C., Akoègninou, A., et al. (2012) · Acta Botanica Gallica · doi:10.1080/12538078.2012.671654 · Cited by 3
“D’après de nombreux travaux de recherche, l’aire de butinage de A. mellifera est fonction de la structure de la végétation et varie de 0,5 à 3 km de rayon (Crane, 1980; Seeley, 1985; Briane, 1991; Kepaletswe, 1997).”
BackgroundBal Arılarında Beslenme Fizyolojisi ve Metabolizması
ÖZBAKIR, G. Ö., & ALİŞİROĞLU, D. G. (2019) · Hayvansal Üretim · doi:10.29185/hayuretim.523081 · Cited by 3
Landscape Learning during Flight Ensures Homing in Honey Bee (Apis mellifera) Drones
Hayashi, S., & Satoh, T. (2021) · Journal of Insect Behavior · doi:10.1007/s10905-021-09771-3 · Cited by 3
“The honey bees (Apis mellifera) are typically used in navigation studies, as they often travel to foraging sites located several kilometers away from their hives (Seeley 1985).”
BackgroundThe impact of honey bee (Apis mellifera) group size on hygienic behavior performance
Snyder, P. O., Martin, J., Herman, J. J., et al. (2024) · Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology · doi:10.1007/s00265-024-03471-6 · Cited by 3
“…in honey bees naturally varies from a few thousand to many ten-thousands as part of their life cycle, food availability, the size of their nesting cavity, genetic variation among lineages, and potentially many other factors (Winston et al. 1981; Lee and Winston 1985; Seeley 1985; Winston 1987).”
Innate and learned components of egg recognition in the ant Camponotus floridanus
Moore, D., & Liebig, J. (2024) · Royal Society Open Science · doi:10.1098/rsos.231837 · Cited by 3
The Role of Pollen in Honeybee Colonies
Hepburn, H. R., Pirk, C. W. W., & Duangphakdee, O. (2014) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-642-54328-9_8 · Cited by 3
Towards swarm level optimisation: the role of different movement patterns in swarm systems
Kengyel, D., Zahadat, P., Wotawa, F., et al. (2017) · International Journal of Parallel Emergent and Distributed Systems · doi:10.1080/17445760.2017.1404600 · Cited by 3
“5% of bees need to be informed to guide the group to a new nest site [35].”
BackgroundNet reproductive rate of unmanaged honeybee colonies, (Apis mellifera L.)
Otis, G. W., & Wearing-Wilde, J. (1992) · Insectes Sociaux · doi:10.1007/bf01249291 · Cited by 3
Supercooling Points of Apis Mellifera Ligustica when Performing Different Age-Related Tasks
Li, Y., Wang, S., & Qin, Y. (2012) · Journal of Apicultural Science · doi:10.2478/v10289-012-0012-z · Cited by 3
Erickson, E. H., Young, A. M., & Erickson, B. J. (1988) · Journal of Apicultural Research · doi:10.1080/00218839.1988.11100801 · Cited by 3
Ferreira, E. A., Boff, S., Verza, S. S., et al. (2021) · Biology · doi:10.3390/biology10020114 · Cited by 3
Adgaba, N., Alghamdi, A. A., Hailu, M., et al. (2013) · Journal of Apicultural Research · doi:10.3896/ibra.1.52.5.02 · Cited by 3
Plant-pollinator interactions: a rich area for study
Aston, T. J. (1987) · Journal of Biological Education · doi:10.1080/00219266.1987.9654913 · Cited by 3
Mortensen, A. N., Jochym, M., Dearden, P. K., et al. (2023) · Journal of Apicultural Research · doi:10.1080/00218839.2023.2243044 · Cited by 2
“Varroa require mature honey bee brood to reproduce, and brood of the appropriate age are not present in the new hive for at least 10 days after establishment (Seeley, 1985), and then gradually increase in the hive as the colony grows.”
Rod-im, P., Duangphakdee, O., Radloff, S. E., et al. (2015) · Journal of Apicultural Research · doi:10.1080/00218839.2016.1151631 · Cited by 2
“A number of behavioral adaptations are made at both a colony and an individual level in exploiting abundant floral resources over the vast area around the nest have been extensively studied (Dyer & Seeley, 1991; Seeley, 1985; Seeley & Levien, 1987; Tautz, 2008; von Frisch, 1967).”
Najib, K. L., & Hassan, A. S. (2021) · Journal of the Nigerian Society of Physical Sciences · doi:10.46481/jnsps.2021.283 · Cited by 2
Role of External Factors in Embryogenesis of Apis mellifera
Boguslavsky, D. V., & Zakharov, I. S. (2021) · Russian Journal of Developmental Biology · doi:10.1134/s1062360421060023 · Cited by 2
Task specific behavior of Indian honey bee ( Apis cerana indica ) workers
Rahman, S., Hajong, S. R., Talukdar, N., et al. (2024) · Journal of Apicultural Research · doi:10.1080/00218839.2024.2361945 · Cited by 2
Plant Resins—Their Role for Plants and Use by Stingless Bees
Leonhardt, S. D., & Roubik, D. W. (2024) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-031-43274-3_12 · Cited by 2
Lower Bounds on the Proportion of Leaders Needed for Expected Consensus of 3-D Flocks
Li, X., Wang, L., Liu, Z., et al. (2016) · IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems · doi:10.1109/tnnls.2016.2598576 · Cited by 2
“Introducing multiple (not one) leaders into the system may be an effective method to solve the above problem [27]–[29].”
MethodA User-Centred Design Approach Towards Developing an Intelligent Living Environment for Honeybees
Hunter, G., Howard, D., & Duran, O. (2016) · Electronic workshops in computing · doi:10.14236/ewic/hci2016.73 · Cited by 2
“Bee ecologists, most notably Frisch (1955, 1993) and Seeley (1985, 1995, 2010), have studied the bees’ preferences, habits and communications when foraging and seeking and exploring possible nest sites.”
BackgroundMethodDecision making in honeybees: a time to live, a time to die?
Schmidt, J. O. (2020) · Insectes Sociaux · doi:10.1007/s00040-020-00759-4 · Cited by 2
Biology of Honeybees and Stingless Bees
van Veen, J. W. (2014) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-94-017-9199-1_3 · Cited by 2
Adaptation and Constraint: Overview
Burd, M. (2006) · Encyclopedia of Life Sciences · doi:10.1038/npg.els.0004166 · Cited by 2
Shift work dynamics and division of labor: honeybee foraging and fanning tasksPreprint
Giannoni‐Guzmán, M. A., Giray, T., & Agosto, J. L. (2020) · bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · doi:10.1101/2020.08.17.254755 · Cited by 2
“2010 793 Singh, M. (2009). Foraging behaviour of the Himalayan honeybee (Apis cerana F.”
BackgroundUnnikrishnan, S., Shah, A., Bais, D., et al. (2021) · bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · doi:10.1101/2021.03.25.436783 · Cited by 2
“stores to survive the winter phase [52,53].”
Smith, D. R. (2021) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-030-28102-1_60 · Cited by 2
Rojek, W., Kuszewska, K., Szentgyörgyi, H., et al. (2022) · Apidologie · doi:10.1007/s13592-022-00932-7 · Cited by 1
“INTRODUCTION Societies of the honeybee (Apis mellifera) are characterized by a high degree of cooperation and harmony (Wilson 1971; Seeley 1985, 2010).”
Smith, M. L., & Peck, D. T. (2023) · Apidologie · doi:10.1007/s13592-023-00991-4 · Cited by 1
“This timeline is longer than what would be expected for “summer” bees, which live 4–6 weeks but shorter than what would be expected for “winter” bees, which live up to 8 months (Fukuda and Sekiguchi 1966; Seeley 1985; Mattila et al.”
Coevolution of the Honeybee and Man: Adaptive Evolution of Two Species
Ilyasov, R. A., Boguslavsky, D. V., Ilyasova, A. Y., et al. (2024) · Biology Bulletin Reviews · doi:10.1134/s2079086424600619 · Cited by 1
“In general, the biology of all bee species is quite similar to each other, and differences are observed in the size of colonies, caste differentiation, and phenotypes (Seeley, 1985; Winston, 1991; Oldroyd and Wongsiri, 2006; Woyke et al., 2012; Johnson, 2023).”
Brown, A. F., Guillaume-Gentil, L., Hehl, J., et al. (2025) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0328626 · Cited by 1
McHenry, L. C., Schürch, R., Johnson, L. E., et al. (2025) · Frontiers in Bee Science · doi:10.3389/frbee.2025.1654032 · Cited by 1
“The honey bee ( Apis mellifera L.) is one such eusocial insect that lives in large colonies comprised of up to tens of thousands of individuals, mostly female workers, and headed by a single queen (Seeley, 1985).”
Pluta, P., Hass, A. L., Czechofsky, K., et al. (2026) · Ecology Letters · doi:10.1111/ele.70327 · Cited by 1
van Toor, R. F., Butler, R. C., Mortensen, A. N., et al. (2026) · Journal of Apicultural Research · doi:10.1080/00218839.2025.2582286 · Cited by 1
Characteristics of black woodpecker cavities chosen and not chosen by honeybee swarms
Rutschmann, B., & Kohl, P. L. (2026) · Apidologie · doi:10.1007/s13592-026-01268-2 · Cited by 1
The wild honeybee population of Europe is in decline: Evidence from monitoring studies
Kohl, P. L., & Rutschmann, B. (2026) · Conservation Science and Practice · doi:10.1111/csp2.70345 · Cited by 1
Testing Mathematical Laws of Behavior in the Honey Bee
Cheng, K. (2011) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-94-007-2099-2_34 · Cited by 1
“Honey bees foraging in the wild need to deal with changing foraging conditions, shifting their area of concentrated search over the course of a season [ 40 ] .”
BackgroundThe Remaining Endopterygote Orders
(2005) · Entomology · doi:10.1007/1-4020-3183-1_10 · Cited by 1
Mitchell, S. D. (2003) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/cbo9780511802683.006 · Cited by 1
Beekeeping Practices for Management of Africanized Bees
van Veen, J. W. (2014) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-94-017-9199-1_6 · Cited by 1
A Leader-Follower Flocking System Based on Estimated Flocking Center
Wang, Z., & Gu, D. (2010) · Advanced information and knowledge processing · doi:10.1007/978-1-84996-329-9_9 · Cited by 1
“Honeybee swarms can be guided to a new site by very few individuals [12].”
BackgroundThe Common Stomach as a Center of Information Sharing for Nest Construction
Karsai, I., & Runciman, A. (2011) · Lecture notes in computer science · doi:10.1007/978-3-642-21314-4_44 · Cited by 1
Abrol, D. P. (2013) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-94-007-6928-1_3 · Cited by 1
Weinberg, I. P., Kuttner, I. L., Tyminski, A. E., et al. (2022) · Insectes Sociaux · doi:10.1007/s00040-022-00858-4 · Cited by 1
Bio-Inspired Computational Intelligence and Its Application to Software Testing
Pandey, A., & Banerjee, S. (2020) · IGI Global eBooks · doi:10.4018/978-1-7998-3016-0.ch040 · Cited by 1
The Remaining Endopterygote Orders
Gillott, C. (1995) · Entomology · doi:10.1007/978-94-017-4380-8_10 · Cited by 1
Sperm utilization in honeybees as detected by M13 DNA fingerprints
Corley, J., Rabinovich, M., Seigelchifer, M., et al. (1993) · Birkhäuser Basel eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-0348-8583-6_33 · Cited by 1
Vidal-Naquet, N. (2011) · doi:10.1002/9780470960806.ch16 · Cited by 1
Adaptation and Constraint: Overview
Burd, M. (2001) · Encyclopedia of Life Sciences · doi:10.1038/npg.els.0001730 · Cited by 1
Wenseleers, T., Oi, C. A., & Oliveira, R. C. (2020) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-90306-4_137-1 · Cited by 1
Shishimi, G., Akaishi, R., & Matsukami, M. (2025) · bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · doi:10.1101/2025.10.14.682345 · Cited by 1
Honeybee Pathogens and Their Management
Gupta, R. K., & Reybroeck, W. (2014) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-94-017-9199-1_10
Biomedical Research with Honey Bees
Elekonich, M. M. (2008) · Humana Press eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-1-59745-285-4_16
ABSO: Advanced Bee Swarm Optimization Metaheuristic and Application to Weighted MAX-SAT Problem
Sadeg, S., Drias, H., Hara, O. A. E., et al. (2011) · Lecture notes in computer science · doi:10.1007/978-3-642-23605-1_24
“Many studies have investigated the foraging behavior of a real bee swarm [15, 16].”
BackgroundMitchell, S. D. (2003) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/cbo9780511802683.008
Mitchell, S. D. (2003) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/cbo9780511802683.004
Comparative Studies of Feeding
Hainsworth, F. R., & Wolf, L. L. (1990) · Handbook of behavioral neurobiology · doi:10.1007/978-1-4613-0577-4_11
Mitchell, S. D. (2003) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/cbo9780511802683.007
Colony Function and Communication
Quezada‐Euán, J. J. G. (2018) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-77785-6_5
Quezada‐Euán, J. J. G. (2018) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-77785-6_6
Sopaladawan, P. N., Oldroyd, B. P., & Wongsiri, S. (2019) · Apidologie · doi:10.1007/s13592-019-00678-9
“The queen’s egg-marking signal benefits both the queen (sender) and police workers (receiver) (Seeley 1985; Heinz and d’Ettorre 2009).”
BackgroundAn Automatic Counting Scheme for Honeybee Workers and Its Performance
Noguchi, R., Isokawa, T., Ikeno, H., et al. (2019) · Transactions of the Institute of Systems Control and Information Engineers · doi:10.5687/iscie.32.265
Mitchell, S. D. (2003) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/cbo9780511802683.003 · Cited by 1
Abrol, D. P. (2013) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-94-007-6928-1_10
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Davies, R. G. (1988) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-94-017-0508-0_9
Nomura, T., Kimura, K., & Arakawa, A. (2021) · Nihon Chikusan Gakkaiho · doi:10.2508/chikusan.92.455
Mitchell, S. D. (2003) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/cbo9780511802683.005
Mitchell, S. D. (2003) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/cbo9780511802683.002
Abrol, D. P. (2013) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-94-007-6928-1_7
Abrol, D. P. (2013) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-94-007-6928-1_11
Mitchell, S. D. (2003) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/cbo9780511802683.001
Abrol, D. P. (2013) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-94-007-6928-1_6
Beshers, S. N. (2021) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-030-28102-1_161
Exploring Movement and Direction in Animal Science
Chandler, J. L. S., & Kirsch, R. E. (2018) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-96472-0_5
Otis, G. W. (2020) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-90306-4_57-1
Abrol, D. P. (2013) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-94-007-6928-1_15
Beshers, S. N. (2019) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-90306-4_161-1
Quezada‐Euán, J. J. G. (2018) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-77785-6_2
Dwarf Honey Bees (Apis (Micrapis))
Oldroyd, B. P. (2019) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-90306-4_38-1
Otis, G. W. (2020) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-90306-4_57-2
Otis, G. W. (2021) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-030-28102-1_57
Bridges, A. D., MaBouDi, H., Procenko, O., Lockwood, C., Mohammed, Y., Kowalewska, A., Romero-González, J. E., Woodgate, J., & Chıttka, L. (2022) · bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · doi:10.1101/2022.10.10.511574
The Queen Honey Bee Duties in the Composite Colonies
Marwaha, L. (2023) · BENTHAM SCIENCE PUBLISHERS eBooks · doi:10.2174/9789815079128112010003
Bridges, A. D., Royka, A. L., Wilson, T., et al. (2023) · bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · doi:10.1101/2023.08.29.555358
Japanese honey bees (Apis cerana japonica) have swarmed more often over the last two decades
Morii, K., & Sakamoto, Y. (2024) · Die Naturwissenschaften · doi:10.1007/s00114-024-01902-y
“Tropical A. mellifera subspecies swarm more often than temperate ones (Seeley 1985).”
BackgroundHoneybees Prevail at Native Wildflowers Distant from Wildland ApiariesPreprint
Cane, J. H. (2024) · SSRN Electronic Journal · doi:10.2139/ssrn.4803700
A Large-Scale Survey of Colony Losses in Sub-Saharan Africa Reveals Climate Impacts on Honey BeesPreprint
Leyton, M. S., Lattorff, H. M. G., Kiatoko, N., et al. (2024) · SSRN Electronic Journal · doi:10.2139/ssrn.4830469
POTENTIAL EFFECT OF HIVE COLOR ON HONEY BEE COLONY PERFORMANCE
Erkan, C., & Öztürk, Y. (2024) · Acta Biológica Colombiana · doi:10.15446/abc.v29n2.106877
“Worker bees, aiming to maintain the internal temperature of the hive between 32-35°C to prevent overheating (Heinrich, 1980; Seeley, 1985; Tautz, 2008; Kovac et al., 2018), attempt to cool the hive by ven-tilating and evaporating the water they bring into the hive (Southwick and Heldmaier, 1987;…”
BackgroundMorphological Comparisons of Adult Worker Bees Developed in Chinese and Italian Honey Bee Combs
Yang, S., Li, H., Wu, P., et al. (2025) · Insects · doi:10.3390/insects16010104
The Peculiarities of Oogenesis in Honeybees (Apis mellifera)
Boguslavsky, D. V., & Ilyasov, R. A. (2024) · Russian Journal of Developmental Biology · doi:10.1134/s106236042470022x
“The number of eggs laid by a queen depends on many factors, including heredity, the number of nursing bees, the availability of nectar and pollen, and environmental conditions (Seeley, 1985).”
Buala, S., & Sopaladawan, P. N. (2022) · Tropical Natural History · doi:10.58837/tnh.22.1.256705
Debnam, S. E., McCormick, M. B., Seibold, C., et al. (2025) · Journal of Apicultural Research · doi:10.1080/00218839.2025.2489822
“Among these species, Apis mellifera (honey bees) use collective passive and active behaviors to maintain remarkably constant brood nest temperatures, from 33 � C to 35 � C, across a wide range of ambient temperatures (Jones et al., 2005; Seeley, 1985; Southwick & Heldmaier, 1987).”
Soziale Systeme als kognitive Systeme — Zur Anpassungsleistung sozialer Organisation bei Tieren —
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Behavioral Thermoregulation in the Cold
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Metadata
- 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 › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Insect Science › 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
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