Hobbies And Interests
Learning Paradigms
The behavior of honeybees is a reliable enough control that you can conduct virtual experiments featuring simulated honeybees. Bees have been observed as part of virtual scientific experiments used to study non-associated and associated learning functions. These include habituation, generalization, overshadowing and positive and negative patterning. These kinds of experiments are intended to habituate novices to interdisciplinary research and data.
Visual Cues
Bees have demonstrated that they have higher learning functions than the average insect. They can learn to distinguish colors and patterns in experiments the same way that other animals like rats can. They can also distinguish colors and navigate their way through a maze by following patterns and lines. Bees can grasp abstract concepts, a capacity once thought to be the realm solely of primates. This was a significant discovery in regards to the kind of brain capacity needed for cognitive functions.
Navigation and Communication
Extensive scientific experiments have been done to unravel the mystery of how bees navigate. Theories include magnetic lines in the Earth, wind currents and the movement of the sun. Although many questions remain, it has been determined that bees do use the sun as their main communication and navigation reference point. The dance language that bees use to communicate is based on the movement of the sun.
Social Behavior
It is not only the social behavior of bees that fascinates the scientific community, but how that behavior evolved in the first place. Recent experiments credit female reproductive traits with giving honeybees their complex social structure in the present day. Scientists compare the social evolution of the honeybee with other solitary species of bees to try and determine what leads a solitary animal to take up social behavior.