SOUND GENERATION IN HONEY BEES.
Abstract
A modified hypothesis is presented on the manner of production. It is unlikely that any of the previous theories of sound production are correct. That is, neither wing movement through the air, sclerite vibration at wing bases, nor spiracular sound production are particularly apropos. Rather, it seems likely that honey bees trigger their wings at the base while the wing is going through its figure-8 sweep. This triggering, possibly by movements of sclerites past one another (or against the base of the wing), can occur not only once per wing sweep but once, twice, or more times. The sound we hear, in turn, is a result of the wings acting as diaphragms. This would explain the importance of microphone position when the wings are illuminated by strobe light triggered by the frequency of sound. It would also explain why a particularly loud bee succeeded in triggering the strobe light only on the down stroke of its wings---the sound produced by a striking of its hind legs by the wings would be more intense than that normally produced by a flying bee and would then be the frequency responsible for triggering the light flash. There is no reason to believe other bee sounds are produced by methods other than that proposed. A study of sound spectrograms of queen piping reveals that frequencies do not drop to zero between pipes under certain conditions. In such cases the frequencies drop part way to zero and rise again for the next pipe, indicating that a continuance of the sound between pipes is possible. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 15, 1965
- Accession Number
- AD0617056
Entities
People
- Adrian M. Wenner