Heat creates precise shapes: bees

1 of 3 Honeycombs' precision / Justus Thane / License

The body heat of bees helps create precise angles and size within honeycombs via use of thermoplastic wax.

Biomimicry Taxonomy

	Process information >
	Sense signals/environmental cues >
	Shape and pattern

Biomimetic Application Ideas

Precise measuring instruments Use of thermoplastic building medium to provide perfect shapes

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[Collapse all sections] Summary

"Geometrical investigations of honeycombs and speculations on how honeybees measure and construct the hexagons and rhombi of their cells are centuries old. Here we show that honeybees neither have to measure nor construct the highly regular structures of a honeycomb, and that the observed pattern of combs can be parsimoniously explained by wax flowing in liquid equilibrium. The structure of the combs of honeybees results from wax as a thermoplastic building medium, which softens and hardens as a result of increasing and decreasing temperatures. It flows among an array of transient, close-packed cylinders which are actually the self-heated honeybees themselves. The three apparent rhomboids forming the base of each cell do not exist but arise as optical artefacts from looking through semi-transparent combs." (Pirk et al. 2004:350)

About the inspiring organism

honey bee
Apis mellifera Linnaeus
[Honey bee]

IUCN Red List Status: Unknown

Some organism data provided by: ITIS: The Integrated Taxonomic Information System
Organism/taxonomy data provided by:
Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life: 2008 Annual Checklist

Bioinspired products and application ideas

Application Ideas: Precise measuring instruments. Use of thermoplastic building medium to provide perfect shapes.

Industrial Sector(s) interested in this strategy: Manufacturing

Tubes 84 Mattress - Mattress

Experts

Beegroup
Jürgen Tautz
Biozentrum, Universität Würzburg

Department of Zoology and Entomology
Randall Hepburn (Emeritus)
Rhodes University

Department of Zoology & Entomology
Christian W. W. Pirk
University of Pretoria

References

Pirk, CWW; Hepburn, HR; Radloff, SE; Tautz. 2004. Honeybee combs: construction through a liquid equilibrium process?. Naturwissenschaften. 91: 350-353.

Heat creates precise shapes: bees

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