Swarm behaviourSwarm behaviour, or swarming, is a collective behaviour exhibited by entities, particularly animals, of similar size which aggregate together, perhaps milling about the same spot or perhaps moving en masse or migrating in some direction. It is a highly interdisciplinary topic. As a term, swarming is applied particularly to insects, but can also be applied to any other entity or animal that exhibits swarm behaviour.
Honey beeA honey bee (also spelled honeybee) is a eusocial flying insect within the genus Apis of the bee clade, all native to mainland Afro-Eurasia. After bees spread naturally throughout Africa and Eurasia, humans became responsible for the current cosmopolitan distribution of honey bees, introducing multiple subspecies into South America (early 16th century), North America (early 17th century), and Australia (early 19th century).
BeeBees are winged insects closely related to wasps and ants, known for their roles in pollination and, in the case of the best-known bee species, the western honey bee, for producing honey. Bees are a monophyletic lineage within the superfamily Apoidea. They are presently considered a clade, called Anthophila. There are over 16,000 known species of bees in seven recognized biological families. Some species - including honey bees, bumblebees, and stingless bees - live socially in colonies while most species (>90%) - including mason bees, carpenter bees, leafcutter bees, and sweat bees - are solitary.
Waggle danceWaggle dance is a term used in beekeeping and ethology for a particular figure-eight dance of the honey bee. By performing this dance, successful foragers can share information about the direction and distance to patches of flowers yielding nectar and pollen, to water sources, or to new nest-site locations with other members of the colony. The waggle dance and the round dance are two forms of dance behaviour that are part of a continuous transition.
Apis dorsataSpeciesbox | name = Giant honey bee | image = Bidens-Apis dorsata-pollen baskets.jpg | image_caption = Pollinating Bidens (note pollen baskets) | image2 = Honeybee on Mimosa pudica at Kadavoor.jpg | image2_caption = Pollinating Mimosa pudica | genus = Apis | parent = Apis (Megapis) | species = dorsata | authority = Fabricius, 1793 | range_map = Apis dorsata distribution map.svg | range_map_alt = Map showing the range of A. dorsata | range_map_caption = Range of A.
Swarm roboticsSwarm robotics is an approach to the coordination of multiple robots as a system which consist of large numbers of mostly simple physical robots. ′′In a robot swarm, the collective behavior of the robots results from local interactions between the robots and between the robots and the environment in which they act.′′ It is supposed that a desired collective behavior emerges from the interactions between the robots and interactions of robots with the environment.
Swarm intelligenceSwarm intelligence (SI) is the collective behavior of decentralized, self-organized systems, natural or artificial. The concept is employed in work on artificial intelligence. The expression was introduced by Gerardo Beni and Jing Wang in 1989, in the context of cellular robotic systems. SI systems consist typically of a population of simple agents or boids interacting locally with one another and with their environment. The inspiration often comes from nature, especially biological systems.
Langstroth hiveIn modern American beekeeping, a Langstroth hive is any vertically modular beehive that has the key features of vertically hung frames, a bottom board with entrance for the bees, boxes containing frames for brood and honey (the lowest box for the queen to lay eggs, and boxes above where honey may be stored) and an inner cover and top cap to provide weather protection. In a Langstroth hive, the bees build honeycomb into frames, which can be moved with ease.
Western honey beeThe western honey bee or European honey bee (Apis mellifera) is the most common of the 7–12 species of honey bees worldwide. The genus name Apis is Latin for "bee", and mellifera is the Latin for "honey-bearing" or "honey carrying", referring to the species' production of honey. Like all honey bee species, the western honey bee is eusocial, creating colonies with a single fertile female (or "queen"), many normally non-reproductive females or "workers", and a small proportion of fertile males or "drones".
Apis laboriosaApis laboriosa or Himalayan giant honey bee, is the world's largest honey bee; single adults can measure up to in length. Before 1980, Apis laboriosa was considered to be a subspecies of the widespread Apis dorsata, the giant honey bee, but in 1980 and for almost 20 years thereafter it was elevated to the rank of a separate species. It was classified once again as a subspecies of Apis dorsata by Michael S. Engel in 1999, but was confirmed as a full species in 2020 on the basis of co-occurrence with Apis dorsata at many sites with no sign of interbreeding.