ABSTRACT
Social life is a defining feature of Apis biology, and human attempts to understand the honey bee colony, no doubt partly motivated by practical aims, began in antiquity. In the scientific age, the European honey bee, Apis mellifera, has come to serve as an important model organism in the study of social behavior in insects. Apis mellifera colonies consist of some 15,000 workers which nest on a set of several parallel combs suspended from the ceiling of a cavity in a tree or a rock. As a factory, the colony's task is to fuel its growth, maintenance, and reproduction with nectar and pollen collected from the environment. The stingless bees in particular, which exhibit an even greater diversity than Apis in colony biology, and yet are much less thoroughly investigated represent a particularly attractive frontier.
