Review by Choice Review
Seeley (Cornell Univ.; The Wisdom of the Hive, 1995; Honeybee Ecology, CH, Mar'86) shares his 35-plus years of experience working with bees. He presents a very interesting treatise about his research (as well as that of other scientists) on these eusocial insects and their fast and accurate group decision making when choosing the colony's new dwelling place. This very well-written book is also beautifully illustrated, highly informative, and educational. The work ends with a chapter in which Seeley lists some "bee derived" rules that he applied in his laboratory and department, including how these rules could be highly suitable if used, in some cases, in human decision making. This very interesting work will appeal to scientists and students in entomology, biology, or behavior, as well as to laypersons. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries. J. M. Gonzalez Texas A&M University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
Entomologist E. O. Wilson calls honeybees humanity's greatest friend among the insects. Cornell professor and ardent beekeeper Seeley (The Wisdom of the Hive, 1995) examines how bees make decisions on where to found a new hive. Beekeepers have known for years that overcrowded hives will swarm the majority of the hive's workers will take off with the old queen and move into a new home, while the remaining bees will rear a new queen in order to perpetuate the parental colony. How the homeless swarm of bees decides where to live, and the settling of the debates among the scout bees who have found potential homesites, forms the basis of this intriguing look at how social insects arrive at a consensus. Seeley takes the reader through the research process, discussing the findings of earlier scientists, the process of field research on bee swarms, and the understanding of what the resulting data means in the lives of the bees. Forager bees become scout bees who, after returning to the swarm, perform a dance to show where and how far away the potential site is. Other scouts check out these locations and join in the dance for whichever site is preferred. This arguing over the best site eventually results in all the scouts agreeing and the whole swarm then moving to its new abode. Now if we humans could only make decisions so democratically.--Bent, Nancy Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
