ReviewFrontiers in psychology2018
Cognitive Aspects of Comb-Building in the Honeybee?
Review in Frontiers in psychology, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
19 citing papers in PubMed, 38 citations in OpenAlex.
- Honeybee adaptability to square comb foundation.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Honeybee comb geometry emerges from local redistribution of angular space by worker construction activity.npj entomology · 2026Article
- Variation in animal architecture: Genes, environment, and culture.Learning & behavior · 2025Article
- Honeybees adapt to a range of comb cell sizes by merging, tilting, and layering their construction.PLoS biology · 2025Article
- Use of Relay Method for Enhancing Comb Construction byInsects · 2025Article
- Proteome-metabolome profiling of wax gland complex reveals functional changes in honeybee,iScience · 2024Article
- Analysis of comb-gnawing behavior in Apis cerana cerana (Hymenoptera: Apidae).Journal of insect science (Online) · 2024Article
- Sub-cell scale features govern the placement of new cells by honeybees during comb construction.Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology · 2023Article
- The role of cognition in nesting.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2023Review
- Manipulating nest architecture reveals three-dimensional building strategies and colony resilience in honeybees.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2023Article
- Biopolymer Honeycomb Microstructures: A Review.Materials (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- Crystallography of honeycomb formation under geometric frustration.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2022Article
- Honeycomb: An open-source distributed system for smart buildings.Patterns (New York, N.Y.) · 2022Article
- Ordering and topological defects in social wasps' nests.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Stigmergy versus behavioral flexibility and planning in honeybee comb construction.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2021Article
- Imperfect comb construction reveals the architectural abilities of honeybees.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2021Article
- Evaluating and Comparing the Natural Cell Structure and Dimensions of Honey Bee Comb Cells of Chinese Bee, Apis cerana cerana (Hymenoptera: Apidae) and Italian Bee, Apis mellifera ligustica (Hymenoptera: Apidae).Journal of insect science (Online) · 2021Article
- Integrated information structure collapses with anesthetic loss of conscious arousal in Drosophila melanogaster.PLoS computational biology · 2021Article
- The beeJournal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
The wax-made comb of the honeybee is a masterpiece of animal architecture. The highly regular, double-sided hexagonal structure is a near-optimal solution to storing food and housing larvae, economizing on building materials and space. Elaborate though they may seem, such animal constructions are often viewed as the result of 'just instinct,' governed by inflexible, pre-programmed, innate behavior routines. An inspection of the literature on honeybee comb construction, however, reveals a different picture. Workers have to learn, at least in part, certain elements of the technique, and there is considerable flexibility in terms of how the shape of the comb and its gradual manufacture is tailored to the circumstances, especially the available space. Moreover, we explore the 2-century old and now largely forgotten work by François Huber, where glass screens were placed between an expanding comb construction and the intended target wall. Bees took corrective action before reaching the glass obstacle, and altered the ongoing construction so as to reach the nearest wooden wall. Though further experiments will be necessary, these results suggest a form of spatial planning skills. We discuss these findings in the context of what is now known about insect cognition, and ask if it is possible that the production of hexagonal wax combs is the result of behavioral heuristics where a complex structure emerges as the result of simple behavioral rules applied by each individual, or whether prospective cognition might be involved.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.