Imperfect comb construction reveals the architectural abilities of honeybees
Imperfect comb construction reveals the architectural abilities of honeybees
复制标题
DOI：
10.1073/pnas.2103605118
复制
发表时间：
2021-08-03
影响因子：
11.1
通讯作者：
Petersen, Kirstin H.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Smith, Michael L.;Napp, Nils;Petersen, Kirstin H.
蜜蜂以其完美的六边形蜂巢而闻名，因其能够最大限度地扩大存储面积，同时最大限度地减少建筑材料而被誉为生物建筑的顶峰。然而，在自然巢中，工人必须定期在不同的细胞大小之间转换，合并不一致的梳子，并优化受限几何形状的构建。这些空间障碍给建造完美六边形的工人带来了挑战，但在这些不规则的建筑场景中，工人在多大程度上充当建筑师而不是简单的机器人还不得而知。使用自动图像分析提取自然梳子建设的不规则性，我们表明，一些建筑配置比其他蜜蜂更困难，工人克服这些挑战，使用组合的建设技术，如：中型细胞，不规则形状的规则图案，并逐步修改细胞倾斜。值得注意的是，通过预测这些建筑挑战，工人们使用有限的局部感知实现了高质量的合并，与需要全局优化的分析模型相当。与机器人建造完美复制的六边形不同，这些不规则的建筑展示了工蜂在塑造巢穴中的积极作用和蜜蜂真正的建筑能力。
Honeybees are renowned for their perfectly hexagonal honeycomb, hailed as the pinnacle of biological architecture for its ability to maximize storage area while minimizing building material. However, in natural nests, workers must regularly transition between different cell sizes, merge inconsistent combs, and optimize construction in constrained geometries. These spatial obstacles pose challenges to workers building perfect hexagons, but it is unknown to what extent workers act as architects versus simple automatons during these irregular building scenarios. Using automated image analysis to extract the irregularities in natural comb building, we show that some building configurations are more difficult for the bees than others, and that workers overcome these challenges using a combination of building techniques, such as: intermediatesized cells, regular motifs of irregular shapes, and gradual modifications of cell tilt. Remarkably, by anticipating these building challenges, workers achieve high-quality merges using limited local sensing, on par with analytical models that require global optimization. Unlike automatons building perfectly replicated hexagons, these building irregularities showcase the active role that workers take in shaping their nest and the true architectural abilities of honeybees.