Stingless Tetragonula Bees Build Combs Like a Crystal

According to a new study led by University of Cambridge researchers, the processes that drive atoms or molecules to aggregate as a crystal have the same mathematical structure as the processes that drive stingless bees of the genus Tetragonula when making their combs.

Tetragonula is a genus of over 30 species in the tribe Meliponini (stingless bees) found in Australia, New Guinea, Indonesia, The Philippines, the Solomon Islands, Malaysia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and India.

These bees are black or dark brown but they have dense white fur on their faces and sides. They measure between 3 and 4 mm in length and are stingless and so are harmless to humans.

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Image credit: Elke Haege / Tim Heard

Combs of two species of the stingless bee Tetragonula showing structures of (top left) target patterns of Tetragonula carbonaria,

(top right) spirals of Tetragonula carbonaria,

(bottom left) double spirals Tetragonula carbonaria,

(bottom right) more disordered terraces of Tetragonula hockingsi.

Source / Image Courtesy

Image credit: Tim Heard

Combs of Tetragonula carbonaria: (left) the open structure is like a multi-storey car park or, in this case of a spiral ramp, like the Guggenheim museum in New York;

(right) worker bees are observed to spend time clustered at the growing edges of terraces.

Source / Image Courtesy

Unique Spiral Hives of the Australian Stingless Bee