Honeybee democracy

In my talk, I will review how, over the past decade, I've finally gotten close to solving the puzzle that I tackled for my PhD thesis project, some 35 years ago. Specifically, I will discuss the means by which a group of house-hunting bees pool their knowledge about multiple candidate nest sites, conduct a frank debate about these options, execute a system of voting, and ultimate reach a consensus about which site will be their colony's new dwelling place. I will also share thoughts on how it was my immense good fortune to be a graduate student with Bert Holldobler and Ed Wilson back in the mid 1970s.