DECENTRALIZED CONTROL OF DRONE COMB CONSTRUCTION IN HONEY-BEE COLONIES

Honey bet colonies furnish their nests with two types of comb distingu ished by cell size: large cells for rearing males (drone comb) and sma ll cells for rearing workers (worker comb). The bees actively regulate the relative quantity of each type, a behavior likely to be important in setting a colony's sex ratio. Experimental analysis of the informa tion pathways and control mechanisms responsible for this regulation f ound the following results. The amount of drone comb in a nest is gove rned by negative feedback from drone comb already oo constructed. This feedback depends on the workers having direct contact with the drone comb in their nest, but does not depend on the queen's contact with th e comb. The comb itself, rather than the brood within it, is sufficien t to provide the negative feedback, although the brood may also contri bute to the effect. These findings show that drone comb regulation doe s not depend on the queen acting as a centralized information gatherer and behavioral controller. Instead, the evidence points to a decision -making process distributed across the population of worker bees, a co ntrol architecture typical of colony organization in honey bees and ot her large-colony insect societies.