How do the bees find their way home? Multiple Versions

Bees are highly organized insects. There are legends about their coherence in actions, "public" and family life. It is interesting that a bee, in principle, can lead a solitary lifestyle. But still prefers to coexist in a society of their own kind. One of the questions about which scientists continue to argue: "How do the bees find their way home?". There are several explanations for this phenomenon. Let's try to understand.

The bee family. Uterus

Bees are not uniform according to their social status. There is a bee-womb that is nurtured in a special way and looks larger than an ordinary bee. She lays eggs (sometimes two thousand units a day), is responsible for the reproduction of the genus, lives longer than all the others. The uterus only leaves the beehive several times in its life in order to be fertilized. All the rest of the time (usually five or six years) she spends inside, where she is served by other individuals.

Drones

They play the role of a kind of "sperm bank" and are intended basically only for the continuation of the bee genus, the reproduction of the offspring. Sexually mature female sputtering flies out of the hive several times, copulating with the uterus in flight, after which it soon dies. The remaining drones live only a few months and with the onset of colds are expelled from the hive by other bees. Outside the house, they die from cold and hunger.

Working bees

These are infertile females, the purpose of which is the collection of pollen and nectar, maintenance of larvae and uterus. About these insects and will be discussed.

What bees find their way home?

Workers - these are the bees, which in search of food fly away from the hive on a fairly large (relative to their size) distance. How do the bees find their way home? After all, a bee that collected nectar a few kilometers from home, returns to the place to "pass" it to feed the family, and again flies back! This happens from day to day several times.

Biocommunication system

Its bees are used to transmit information, exchanging various signals. One such is the peculiar smell of its bee family. He helps the bee, which has a fairly developed sense of smell (for example, drones find the unfertilized uterus also by smell), return home. American scientists conducted scientific experiments that showed how bees find their way to a delicacy: these insects smell at great distances. And with the use of some fragrances, they can even be trained to some extent! So, bees were taught to look for dangerous substances by smell: nitroglycerin or dynamite, for example.

Position of the sun

For people it is rather difficult in cloudy weather to determine where the sun can be. Bees have this much easier. They constantly use the position of the sun as a kind of landmark. And for bees, the presence of clouds does not make any difference. The main thing is the polarization of light in the sky and certain fluctuations originating from it. So, to the question "How do bees find their way home?" You can also say: "By the sun." This phenomenon is similar to the action of a compass, as if embedded in the head of an insect. So, the worker bee does not spend much time looking for a way back to the hive, but uses it as a guide. It is interesting that this insect "keeps in mind" the flying way for several days!

Landscape Orientation

And yet, according to the testimony of some biologists, one of the versions, how bees find their way home, is their ability to navigate the terrain, to use and remember changes in the landscape. With the help of experiments, scientists have established that a bee can find a road at a distance of more than 10 kilometers, in any, even cloudy, weather. And for several days, keep in memory the location of the house hive.