With spectacularly beautiful colour photographs and an easily understandable text The Buzz about Bees tells the story of honeybees in a new perspective. Based on the latest data, notably from his own research group, Jürgen Tautz provides a wonderful insight into the realms of bees.
“Whereas bee colonies were once seen as perfect societies of selfless workers and drones ruled by a queen, Tautz presents them as a self-organised, complex adaptive system that he considers “a mammal in many bodies”. This comprehensive introduction to honeybee biology (originally published as Phänomen Honigbiene) explores such topics as how bees obtain and communicate information about flowers, “whole-animal gametes”, and the comb’s contributions to the sociophysiology of the colony. The author has been honoured for making research accessible to the public, and his lucid text will reward lay readers, apiarists, students, and professional biologists alike. The book is profusely illustrated with Heilmann’s spectacular photos, which capture the full range of bee activities—including some, such as the living chains formed where combs are being built or repaired, whose function remains unknown.” (SCIENCE, Vol. 322, 19 December 2008).
With some 230 fascinating high quality colour photographs.
