This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: A new study seeks to challenge the conventional view of a honey bee colony. Viewing colonies as superorganisms redefines the fundamental biology of the honey bee colony.
These insights may have implications for modern beekeeping. According to the prevailing view, a honey bee colony consists of a very large number of individual organisms: specifically, a queen, 200–300 drones and tens of thousands of worker bees. All these individuals have their own specific tasks that contribute to the development and functioning of the bee colony.
However, a new study puts forward the idea of viewing the bee colony from a different perspective, in which each queen and her colony instead constitute a superorganism—that is, a single animal made up of bees in much the same way as our bodies are made up of cells. The authors of the article are Hannes Bonhoff, who recently completed his master's degree in biology at Lund University, and Heikki Helanterä, a professor of evolutionary biology and genomics at the University of Oulu in Finland. The research is published in the journal Insectes Sociaux.
"We have analyzed what it means for a bee colony to be a single organism, which opens up new insights into the fascinating life of the honey bee," says Bonhoff. He argues that the bee colony, as a superorganism, can be likened to an individual mammal that goes through a period of gestation involving extensive parental care. He notes, for example, that every generation of a bee colony develops from a single bee and progresses through the same stages as a mammal, that is, from embryo and fetus to juvenile and adult, and that this is accompanied by an inevitable biological aging process, which means that the bee colony dies after a few years.
"When this superorganism reproduces, the offspring are cared for with great dedication by the parent, in some cases even at the cost of the parent's life," says Bonhoff. Honey bees prepare to reproduce by swarming. Essentially, this means that the queen and half the bee colony fly off to find a new hive.
A new queen is left behind in the old hive; she will form the basis of a new bee colony, which will then develop within the remaining part of the mother colony. "Parental care therefore goes so far that the offspring inherits the mother's nest, while she herself risks her life by swarming away to settle elsewhere," says Bonhoff. The offspring thus develop in a safe environment within their mother colony and are provided with food, shelter and a well-constructed hive.
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