Sex on Six Legs_ Lessons on Life, Love, and Language From the Insect World - Marlene Zuk [91]
Remember, the bees are in a swarm of up to ten thousand individuals, surrounding a plump, fecund queen, who must be protected at all costs. Only a few bees are able to survey their surroundings and choose a site where they and subsequent generations will spend the rest of their lives. What makes for exclusive bee real estate? How do the scouts convey the news about where they have been to everyone else in the swarm? And once the information is delivered, how does the group decide which of the prospective new homes is the most suitable? Finally, how can such an enormous group of tiny creatures stay together and get to the same place?
The answers to these questions shed light not just on the behavior of bees, but on how decisions are made by groups of animals, whether these are insects, migrating birds, or humans. At the same time, only bees and their close relatives show the kind of complex communication system that challenges our definition of what it means to be human. How do insects decide where to go? Further, and more provocative, is the means by which they indicate their destination a real language?
The Spirit of the Hive
ALL KINDS of animals, and even some microorganisms, make decisions: go left instead of right, eat this food and not that, sing now or rest for the afternoon. Decisions by female Drosophila about where to lay their eggs have vital implications for the fate of the offspring, and scientists have made great strides in understanding how genes control the fruit flies' choices from among an array of options (too much sugar in the medium and they turn up their little ovipositors, or egg-laying organs, at it). But the flies do not have to consult with their families about their decisions, and no one else offers an opinion.
The bees, however, live in a society, and while it is not democratic, neither is it a dictatorship. The queen may have the last word in reproduction, but not in moving house. Maurice Maeterlinck, the playwright who praised the nobility of ants and their cooperative nature in his 1930 book, had written The Life of the Bee in 1901. He considered the way the colony found its way to its new home, and concluded, "All things go to prove that it is not the queen, but the spirit of the hive, that decides on the swarm." As with house hunting in humans, the decision about where to move in honeybees and other social insects is fraught with complication. The decision must be made fairly quickly, because the swarm is vulnerable as it clings to a branch (or garage ceiling beam). At the same time, its consequences are crucial, since the colony will spend its life in its new home and needs to have ample room to raise its brood, with food sources located nearby. How do the bees keep from spending endless time in filibuster and argumentation, like a miniature all-night congressional attempt to arrive at a budget? What is more, sometimes the old home is destroyed by fire, flood, or the untimely arrival of a hungry bear, necessitating the abrupt evacuation of the old home and a pressing need to find a new one. A group decision is essential; the bees can't simply go back to their constituents and try again next season.
Group decisions are particularly interesting because they imply first that the members of the group are able to convey messages to each other, and second that they have some mechanism for evaluating each individual's contribution. Groups have a rather dubious reputation when it comes to collective activity; none other than Friedrich Nietzsche disparaged humans by suggesting, "Madness is the exception in individuals but the rule in groups." Maeterlinck, however, was more charmed by the process of group decisions in the bees and felt that "there can be no doubting that they understand each other," although "certain as it may seem that the bees communicate with each