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The Biology of the Honey Bee
952
Animal Behaviour, 36, 3
The most successful group of papers comprises those devoted to foraging and job specialization in ants. They cover topics including recruitment, sector fidelity and age polyethism. They also consider the often conflicting needs in the colony; between collecting honeydew or insect prey; between precision or error in trail following, since inaccuracy may lead to the discovery of new food sources; between environmental modification of behaviour and fixed patterns of behavioural development. Papers follow illustrating the value of less specialized individuals in the adaptation of a colony to the loss or absence of certain specialists, and the interaction between genetic and environmental maturational programmes, including imprinting-like processes resulting in individualistic behaviour in ants of the same age and caste. From this series of papers group response can be seen emerging from collective individual behaviour. However, you must read that series of a dozen papers to enjoy such a view, as well as make your own connections between them and the societies of birds, bees, fish and thrips. The book would have had wider impact and stronger appeal had the editors contributed introductory or summarizing sections pointing to common messages and equally interesting contradictions. One paper, for example, suggests that the small number of morphological castes in ants may be due to evolutionary constraint. But, is this really constraint or just another aspect of the compromise between flexibility and specialization? The second half of the book lacks the cohesion of the first, with a maximum of three consecutive papers dealing with any one of the topics of chemical communication, colony and individual recognition, mono- and polygyny and the evolution of social life. These are all aspects of colony life which result from the behaviour of individuals, but again, without additional editorial clarification, the papers remain largely of interest to social insect specialists alone. More communication and coordination between chapters in this book might have helped to create a supra-organism from the contributions of individuals. M. H. HANSELL
Department of Zoology, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, U.K. The Biology of the Honey Bee. By MARK L. WINSTON. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press (1987). Pp. viii+281. Price $29.95. The biology of the honey bee is one of those topics
in biology that has interested people at least as long as they could write. A tremendous knowledge about the biology of honey bees has accumulated beginning with the behavioural observations of Aristotle and ending in today's efforts to try to sequence genes of honey bees. Honey bees provide a unique test system for almost any discipline in biology and consequently a book on this topic must cover a wide field. Mark Winston tries to give an indepth introduction into their biology: an important move, since a timely monograph on the honey bee has long been needed. However, it is a huge and almost impossible task for a single author to cover honey bee biology in its full depth in one textbook. Consequently the author focuses mainly on his specialities, general entomology and behavioural ecology. In these areas the book has its strengths and here the reader gets the information expected from an up-to-date textbook. Other equally important aspects, however, are only superficially dealt with. The title of the book, therefore, is misleading. Winston does not and cannot cover a state-of-theart overview of what has happened and is currently happening in honey bee biology in 224 pages. Information on tropical honey bees other than the Africanized honey bee of South America is only scanty. All Asian honey bee species are definitely underrepresented in this textbook which, according to its title, refers to the genus 'honey bee' and not to a single species, Apis mellifera, alone. Almost nothing is found concerning the genetics and evolutionary biology of the honey bee. This is particularly disappointing since these are among the vast growing areas in bee research in the last decade. Rinderer's (1986) recent book on bee breeding and genetics is a good testimony to this development. But also in other disciplines the discussion of basic biological problems often remains at the surface. F o r example, from 14 recently discussed models for the evolution of multiple mating of the honey bee queen (Crozier & Page 1985) only one is presented, and that in an unfortunately misleading way. There is a bad printing error in Fig. 12.3 illustrating the mating behaviour of honey bees. Two drawings are printed upside down and show that the queen dies after mating whereas the drone flies away. Fortunately in nature it is the other way round. Nevertheless, Mark Winston's book, though not giving an in-depth introduction to honey bee biology (as promised in the title and the preface), is a reasonable textbook for readers interested in general entomology and behavioural ecology of the honey bee. It is a useful tool in classes on honey bee ecology for both teachers and students. Those, however, who are in search of a detailed mono-
Book Rev~ws graph on the biology of the honey bee still have to wait: hopefully not forever. R. MORITZ
Bayerische Landesanstalt fiir Bienenzucht, Burgbergstrasse 70, 8520 Erlangen, West Germany. References Crozier, R. H. & Page, R. E. 1985. On beeing the right size: male contributions and multiple mating in social Hymenoptera. Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol., 18, 105-I 15. Rinderer, T. E. 1986. Bee Geneticsand Breeding. London: Academic Press.
Ontogeny of Olfaction. Principles of Olfactory Maturation in Vertebrates. Edited by WINRICH BREIPOHL. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag (1986). Pp. xi+268. Price DM 118. This is an interdisciplinary approach to the ontogeny of the vertebrate olfactory system. The time is ripe for reviewing this field as illustrated by recent reviews on the early development of olfactory function (Pedersen et al. 1985); maturation and plasticity of the olfactory system in vertebrates (Brunjes & Frazier 1986) and selective alteration of mitral cells caused by odour exposure in early life (Reasner 1987). Ontogeny of Olfaction, edited by Breipohl, is divided into five interesting parts: principles of neuronal cell proliferation (two chapters), morphological maturation of the olfactory periphery (five chapters), postnatal maturation of the olfactory bulb (five chapters), maturation of tertiary olfactory centres (three chapters) and postnatal development of olfactory guided behaviour (four chapters). In addition there is an enjoyable introduction written by R. L. Doty on the ontogeny of human olfactory function. Breipohl and collaborators come up with a new model for neurogenesis and plasticity of the olfactory epithelium. Their hypothesis is that individual receptor cells do not have a predetermined lifespan, but that their life depends upon internal and external 'insults'. I'm impressed by their courage in suggesting that cell death might occur through saturation and exhaustion of odour-receptor mechanisms. This would mean that the more you smell the faster the receptor cells die. Undoubtedly this suggestion will stimulate discussion and hopefully also new experimental designs in the future.
953
The other chapters on the development of the sensory epithelium are more traditional and together make up a comprehensive review on the ontogeny of olfactory receptor cells. The development of olfactory function as shown by electrophysiological techniques is discussed by Schmidt. For those interested in the selective alterations of the cells of the olfactory bulb caused by odour exposure early in life, there are valuable contributions by Rehn and Breipohl and by Panhuber. Meisami and Lu et al. review their work on central and peripheral influence on postnatal development of the olfactory bulb. In both articles I missed the reference to the classical work by von Gudden (1870) and was surprised to find it among the references in Hudson and Distel. Schwob et al. make an elegant expos6 of their work on the axonal pathways of the olfactory system and its development, and Capron de Caprona et al. review the studies on the LHRH-immunoreactive system in cichlids. For those interested in animal behaviour: the last four chapters focus on the huddling of rat pups; early olfactory experience of pheromones creating the maternal bond; olfactory guided nipple-search and salivary pheromones in pigs and humans. All chapters are lucid and well-written and demonstrate how the olfactory system, in particular, is adapted to serve in the survival of the young. In this part of the book I miss the work on kin recognition. In general this book is a useful and original collection of reviews and hopefully the interdisciplinary approach will stimulate fruitful co-operation, uniting information on one species with regard to anatomy, physiology and behaviour, for example in relation to the effect of early olfactory experience. K JELL B. DOVING
Department of Biology, University of Oslo, 0316 Oslo 3, Norway. References Brunjes, P. C. & Frazier, L. L. 1986. Maturation and plasticity in the olfactory system of vertebrates. Brain Res. Rev., 11, 1-45. von Gudden, B. 1870. Experimentaluntersuchungen uber das peripherische und zentrale Nervensystem. Arch. Psychiatr., 2, 693-723. Pedersen, P. E., Greer, C. A. & Shepherd, G. M. 1985. Early development of olfactory function. Handbk Behav. Neurobiol., 8, 163-203. Reasner, D. S. 1987. Spatially selective alteration of the mitral cell layer: a critical review of the literature. Chem. Senses, 12, 365-379.
Animal Behaviour, 36, 3
The most successful group of papers comprises those devoted to foraging and job specialization in ants. They cover topics including recruitment, sector fidelity and age polyethism. They also consider the often conflicting needs in the colony; between collecting honeydew or insect prey; between precision or error in trail following, since inaccuracy may lead to the discovery of new food sources; between environmental modification of behaviour and fixed patterns of behavioural development. Papers follow illustrating the value of less specialized individuals in the adaptation of a colony to the loss or absence of certain specialists, and the interaction between genetic and environmental maturational programmes, including imprinting-like processes resulting in individualistic behaviour in ants of the same age and caste. From this series of papers group response can be seen emerging from collective individual behaviour. However, you must read that series of a dozen papers to enjoy such a view, as well as make your own connections between them and the societies of birds, bees, fish and thrips. The book would have had wider impact and stronger appeal had the editors contributed introductory or summarizing sections pointing to common messages and equally interesting contradictions. One paper, for example, suggests that the small number of morphological castes in ants may be due to evolutionary constraint. But, is this really constraint or just another aspect of the compromise between flexibility and specialization? The second half of the book lacks the cohesion of the first, with a maximum of three consecutive papers dealing with any one of the topics of chemical communication, colony and individual recognition, mono- and polygyny and the evolution of social life. These are all aspects of colony life which result from the behaviour of individuals, but again, without additional editorial clarification, the papers remain largely of interest to social insect specialists alone. More communication and coordination between chapters in this book might have helped to create a supra-organism from the contributions of individuals. M. H. HANSELL
Department of Zoology, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, U.K. The Biology of the Honey Bee. By MARK L. WINSTON. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press (1987). Pp. viii+281. Price $29.95. The biology of the honey bee is one of those topics
in biology that has interested people at least as long as they could write. A tremendous knowledge about the biology of honey bees has accumulated beginning with the behavioural observations of Aristotle and ending in today's efforts to try to sequence genes of honey bees. Honey bees provide a unique test system for almost any discipline in biology and consequently a book on this topic must cover a wide field. Mark Winston tries to give an indepth introduction into their biology: an important move, since a timely monograph on the honey bee has long been needed. However, it is a huge and almost impossible task for a single author to cover honey bee biology in its full depth in one textbook. Consequently the author focuses mainly on his specialities, general entomology and behavioural ecology. In these areas the book has its strengths and here the reader gets the information expected from an up-to-date textbook. Other equally important aspects, however, are only superficially dealt with. The title of the book, therefore, is misleading. Winston does not and cannot cover a state-of-theart overview of what has happened and is currently happening in honey bee biology in 224 pages. Information on tropical honey bees other than the Africanized honey bee of South America is only scanty. All Asian honey bee species are definitely underrepresented in this textbook which, according to its title, refers to the genus 'honey bee' and not to a single species, Apis mellifera, alone. Almost nothing is found concerning the genetics and evolutionary biology of the honey bee. This is particularly disappointing since these are among the vast growing areas in bee research in the last decade. Rinderer's (1986) recent book on bee breeding and genetics is a good testimony to this development. But also in other disciplines the discussion of basic biological problems often remains at the surface. F o r example, from 14 recently discussed models for the evolution of multiple mating of the honey bee queen (Crozier & Page 1985) only one is presented, and that in an unfortunately misleading way. There is a bad printing error in Fig. 12.3 illustrating the mating behaviour of honey bees. Two drawings are printed upside down and show that the queen dies after mating whereas the drone flies away. Fortunately in nature it is the other way round. Nevertheless, Mark Winston's book, though not giving an in-depth introduction to honey bee biology (as promised in the title and the preface), is a reasonable textbook for readers interested in general entomology and behavioural ecology of the honey bee. It is a useful tool in classes on honey bee ecology for both teachers and students. Those, however, who are in search of a detailed mono-
Book Rev~ws graph on the biology of the honey bee still have to wait: hopefully not forever. R. MORITZ
Bayerische Landesanstalt fiir Bienenzucht, Burgbergstrasse 70, 8520 Erlangen, West Germany. References Crozier, R. H. & Page, R. E. 1985. On beeing the right size: male contributions and multiple mating in social Hymenoptera. Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol., 18, 105-I 15. Rinderer, T. E. 1986. Bee Geneticsand Breeding. London: Academic Press.
Ontogeny of Olfaction. Principles of Olfactory Maturation in Vertebrates. Edited by WINRICH BREIPOHL. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag (1986). Pp. xi+268. Price DM 118. This is an interdisciplinary approach to the ontogeny of the vertebrate olfactory system. The time is ripe for reviewing this field as illustrated by recent reviews on the early development of olfactory function (Pedersen et al. 1985); maturation and plasticity of the olfactory system in vertebrates (Brunjes & Frazier 1986) and selective alteration of mitral cells caused by odour exposure in early life (Reasner 1987). Ontogeny of Olfaction, edited by Breipohl, is divided into five interesting parts: principles of neuronal cell proliferation (two chapters), morphological maturation of the olfactory periphery (five chapters), postnatal maturation of the olfactory bulb (five chapters), maturation of tertiary olfactory centres (three chapters) and postnatal development of olfactory guided behaviour (four chapters). In addition there is an enjoyable introduction written by R. L. Doty on the ontogeny of human olfactory function. Breipohl and collaborators come up with a new model for neurogenesis and plasticity of the olfactory epithelium. Their hypothesis is that individual receptor cells do not have a predetermined lifespan, but that their life depends upon internal and external 'insults'. I'm impressed by their courage in suggesting that cell death might occur through saturation and exhaustion of odour-receptor mechanisms. This would mean that the more you smell the faster the receptor cells die. Undoubtedly this suggestion will stimulate discussion and hopefully also new experimental designs in the future.
953
The other chapters on the development of the sensory epithelium are more traditional and together make up a comprehensive review on the ontogeny of olfactory receptor cells. The development of olfactory function as shown by electrophysiological techniques is discussed by Schmidt. For those interested in the selective alterations of the cells of the olfactory bulb caused by odour exposure early in life, there are valuable contributions by Rehn and Breipohl and by Panhuber. Meisami and Lu et al. review their work on central and peripheral influence on postnatal development of the olfactory bulb. In both articles I missed the reference to the classical work by von Gudden (1870) and was surprised to find it among the references in Hudson and Distel. Schwob et al. make an elegant expos6 of their work on the axonal pathways of the olfactory system and its development, and Capron de Caprona et al. review the studies on the LHRH-immunoreactive system in cichlids. For those interested in animal behaviour: the last four chapters focus on the huddling of rat pups; early olfactory experience of pheromones creating the maternal bond; olfactory guided nipple-search and salivary pheromones in pigs and humans. All chapters are lucid and well-written and demonstrate how the olfactory system, in particular, is adapted to serve in the survival of the young. In this part of the book I miss the work on kin recognition. In general this book is a useful and original collection of reviews and hopefully the interdisciplinary approach will stimulate fruitful co-operation, uniting information on one species with regard to anatomy, physiology and behaviour, for example in relation to the effect of early olfactory experience. K JELL B. DOVING
Department of Biology, University of Oslo, 0316 Oslo 3, Norway. References Brunjes, P. C. & Frazier, L. L. 1986. Maturation and plasticity in the olfactory system of vertebrates. Brain Res. Rev., 11, 1-45. von Gudden, B. 1870. Experimentaluntersuchungen uber das peripherische und zentrale Nervensystem. Arch. Psychiatr., 2, 693-723. Pedersen, P. E., Greer, C. A. & Shepherd, G. M. 1985. Early development of olfactory function. Handbk Behav. Neurobiol., 8, 163-203. Reasner, D. S. 1987. Spatially selective alteration of the mitral cell layer: a critical review of the literature. Chem. Senses, 12, 365-379.