H. Randall Hepburn

Honeybees and Wax

An Experimental Natural History

• Broschiertes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

"Instead of dirt and poison we have rather chosen to fill our hives with honey and wax; thus furnisning mankind with the two noblest of things, which are sweetness and light". Mindful of Swift's dictum, this compilation is offered as an exhaustive coverage of a smallish literature on the synthesis and secretion of beeswax, its elaboration into combs and the factors which bear on the execution of these processes by honeybees. To codify any aspect of the biology of an animal of agricultural importance is to sift through myriad observations and experiments, centuries old, that come down to us enshrouded in the folk literature. It is evident that wars and languages have also acted as barriers to the dissemination of knowledge about honeybees. Thus, particular care has been given to the primacy of discovery and its con textual significance. I have endeavoured to not over-interpret data and to allow the authors' works to speak for themselves. I have also tried to indicate some of the more obvious gaps in our knowledge of honeybees in relation to wax and to suggest some directions as to where we might proceed, aided by discoveries made on other animals and plants. This was done to remind the seasoned bee-hand of our general neglect of beeswax biology, historically constituting less than a percentage point of the apicultural literature.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Springer / Springer Berlin Heidelberg / Springer, Berlin
• Artikelnr. des Verlages: 978-3-642-71460-3
• Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 1986
• Seitenzahl: 220
• Erscheinungstermin: 17. November 2011
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 244mm x 170mm x 13mm
• Gewicht: 387g
• ISBN-13: 9783642714603
• ISBN-10: 3642714609
• Artikelnr.: 36119062

Inhaltsangabe

1 Introduction.- I: The Nature and Production of Beeswax.- 2 The Origin of Beeswax: an Historical Perspective.- 3 Source of Secretion.- 4 Rise and Fall of the Epithelium.- 5 Composition and Synthesis of Beeswax.- 6 Food Conversion Ratios in the Production of Beeswax.- II: The Manipulation Of Wax By Honeybees.- 7 Manipulation of Wax Scales.- 8 Metamorphosis of Wax.- 9 The Construction of Cells.- 10 The Construction of Combs.- III: Stimuli for Production and Manipulation of Wax.- 11 The Nectar Flow.- 12 Pollen and Wax Production.- 13 The Brood Nest.- 14 The Queen.- 15 Space and Density.- References.- Author Index.