FEATURING - The Dark Side of the Hive: The Evolution of the Imperfect Honey Bee by Robin Moritz and Robin Crewe.

The Special Collections Book of the Week this week is: 

The Dark Side of the Hive: The Evolution of the Imperfect Honey Bee by Robin Moritz and Robin Crewe.

Honey bees have been described as exceptionally clever, well-organized, mutualistic, collaborative, busy, efficient—in short, a perfect society. While the colony is indeed a marvel of harmonious, efficient organization, it also has a considerable dark side. Authors Robin Moritz and Robin Crewe write about the life history of the honey bee, Apis mellifera, highlighting conflict rather than harmony, failure rather than success, from the perspective of the individual worker in the colony. When one looks carefully, the honey bee colony is far from being perfect. As with any complex social system, honeybee societies are prone to error, robbery, cheating, and social parasitism.  The perfection that is perceived to exist in the honey bee’s social organization is the function of a focus on the colony as a whole rather than exploring the idiosyncrasies of its individual members. The Dark Side of the Hive thus focuses on the role of the individual rather than that of the collective.

Access: https://univofpretoria.on.worldcat.org/oclc/1031054471

This book is available at Special Collections, housed on level 5 of the Merensky 2 Library, and is part of our Tukkiana (TUK) Collection. It was donated to Special Collections by Prof Robin Crewe.

The Special Collections unit of the Department of Library Services plays a stewardship role in the acquisition and preservation of the Library's rare and valuable information resources, making them accessible to students, staff and researchers, as well as safeguarding them for future generations.