Revelation, Rationality, Knowledge & Truth — Page 585
THE ‘BLIND WATCHMAKER' WHO IS ALSO DEAF AND DUMB. Bees display fantastic engineering skills and their building gives the impression that they have been equipped with most sophisticated measuring instruments: "The precision and strength of the newly built comb is remarkable. For example, cell wall thickness is 0. 073 ± 0. 002 mm, the angle between adjacent cell walls is an exact 120°, and each comb is generally constructed 0. 95 cm from its neighbor. 525. Born out of similar eggs, the offspring are divided into three different professional groups; the queens, the workers and the drones. The queen is capable of laying thousands of eggs in a day. 'The aptly named queen reigns over the nest, surrounded by attendants and fed the rich food she requires to perform her few but crucial tasks in the colony. Her slim lines hide the huge ovaries which make her an extraordinary egg-laying machine, capable of laying thousands of eggs a day, and her calm behaviour masks her powerful pheromones, chemical signals to recipient workers which control many of their behaviours and provide part of the social glue which holds honey bee life together. •26. The drones who are also specially fed by the worker bees have strong masculine bodies. They only perform one function - mating with the queen, after which they die. . The main body of the colony consists of worker bees who collect pollen and make honey. They also array themselves around the rim, always watchful, always ready to defend the colony. Their functional ability to fly at an instant's notice depends however on their body temperature which must be maintained at 35°C. Temperature is no problem in the centre of the honeycomb which is protected from all sides but at the rim their temperature begins to fall 547