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| Honeybee Biology
The biology of the honeybee is a particular aspect scientists are closely examining in an attempt to better understand its current afflictions. The bee is equipped with intricate biological mechanisms, allowing it to be “capable of performing a broad range of athletic, graceful, and purposeful tasks” (Winston 1987:13). With such specialized “gears,” so-to-speak, it should come as no wonder why the honeybee could so easily fall victim to chemical and biological agents.
The honeybee relies heavily upon its sensory organs for communication as well as navigation. One could assume, then, that the seemingly aimless flight pattern of those honeybees presumed afflicted with Colony Collapse Disorder is in some way due to diseased chemical receptors or a deficiency in their ability to excrete appropriate pheromones. Along with chemical communication, “honeybees use visual, auditory, and magnetic cues to round out their sensory impressions of the world” (Winston 1987:129). If such impressions were to be skewed by environmental or infectious pressures, reports detailing bees having “flown away [from the hive] before dying...and [not] taking care of the younger, developing bees” (Srakocic 2007) could be correlated to diseased organs from which honeybees derive communication and orientation signals.
On a grander scale, it is important for those embarking on honeybee research to examine the social dynamic of the hive. Interactions between the honeybees are integral in the ability to track the spread of a contagion or an environmental stress inducer. The hive itself is often looked upon as a functioning organism, as its complex divisions of labor are maintained through biological mechanisms of reproduction and chemical excretion. Nestmate recognition, alone, is “undoubtedly based on odors...[and] recognition cues may even involve subtle differences in ratios or concentration of pheromones” (Winston 1987:149).
To understand how infectious agents thought to be contributing to Colony Collapse Disorder can affect the biology of the honeybee, information has been included in the left-hand navigation bar which will expand on the before mentioned biological aspects: The honeybee alone, and the hive as a whole.
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