The bee Tetragonula builds its comb like a crystal
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Published on: July 9, 2020
Silvana S S Cardoso1, Julyan H E Cartwright2,3, Antonio G Checa2,4
1Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB3 0AS, UK.
Abstract:
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.
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