Summary
Current ethograms for honeybee behavior are hypothesized to consist of age-related cohorts of workers having a high probability of performing a small set of related tasks in a restricted portion of the nest. Wax secretion and wax working related activities were assayed in this light. It is shown that wax secretion is significantly affected by worker age and that bees between 3 and 21 days old form such a cohort. Comb building festoons, previously thought to be the site of wax secretion, represent only a small fraction of newly secreted wax in the nest. Wax secretion remains constant relative to age in the cohort but varies significantly with season as does bee participation in festooning behavior. Wax secretion and wax working are both definable in terms of time and space in the nest, the relative probability of activity changing with season. Secretion itself is constrained by the cyclical activity of the underlying wax gland complex.
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Muller, W.J., Hepburn, H.R. Temporal and spatial patterns of wax secretion and related behavior in the division of labour of the honeybee (Apis mellifera capensis). J Comp Physiol A 171, 111–115 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00195966
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00195966