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The bee Tetragonula builds its comb like a crystal

2020; Royal Society; Volume: 17; Issue: 168 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1098/rsif.2020.0187

1742-5689

Silvana S. S. Cardoso, Julyan H. E. Cartwright, António Checa, Bruno Escribano, Antonio J. Osuna‐Mascaró, C. Ignacio Sainz‐Díaz,

Insect and Pesticide Research

Stingless bees of the genus Tetragonula construct a brood comb with a spiral or a target pattern architecture in three dimensions. Crystals possess these same patterns on the molecular scale. Here, we show that the same excitable-medium dynamics governs both crystal nucleation and growth and comb construction in Tetragonula , so that a minimal coupled-map lattice model based on crystal growth explains how these bees produce the structures seen in their bee combs.