Different colonies build in competing architectural styles
to architectural accomplishments, humans like to think they stand at the top of the pyramid. That is to underestimate the astonishing achievements of social insects: termites raise skyscraping nests and honeybees fashion mesmerisingly geometric combs. The true master builders of the insect world, however, are the hundreds of species of stingless bee, native to the tropics and subtropics, which weave combs of unparalleled variety and intricacy inside hollow tree trunks or other cavities.
In order to rule out a genetic explanation for the different styles, the researchers transplanted workers from colonies that built in one tradition to colonies that built in the other, having first emptied the host structures of their indigenous adults. The imported workers soon switched to the local style, which was then perpetuated by the colony’s own larvae as they eventually matured into workers.
These results have left observers of animal culture abuzz, as they suggest that stingless bees can transmit different building traditions across generations without individuals needing to be instructed by their peers. This is a more expansive way of thinking about culture, which is often rigidly defined as behaviour directly transmitted from individual to individual until it becomes characteristic of a group.
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