European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - July 27, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse The Washington Post the naked mole rat h Euso Cial mammal. By Carol Kadesuk Yoon the new York times for years an exclusive club made up of ants bees wasps Andrj termites has ruled As the social elite of the animal world. The insects Well run colonies of sterile workers devoted to serving their fat Fertile Queens so impressed biologists As to acquire the scientific classification of social or Euso Cial a distinction even humans cannot claim. But new studies indicate that Many More species besides these Well known examples May be living Euso Cial lives giving urn their own chances of reproduction to help Foster the offspring of others. Scientists have now discovered eur speciality in a species of thrips a tiny insect the Euso Cial thrips live As colonies in Plant galls defended by armed soldiers that never reproduce and will fight to the death against invaders. A sociality has also been observed recently among a species of Ambrosia beetles. The beetles live deep in tunnels inside eucalyptus Trees their sole purpose being to build and maintain their Queen s Labyrinthine world never reproducing themselves. Along with tree dwelling aphids and the bizarre naked mole rat these species Are helping to swell the ranks of those known to be Euso Cial. Biologists say that the new additions May provide an important key to the Puzzle of How such societies have come to exist. And researchers Are happily predicting that Many More such surprises Are in store. A lot More animals Are going to turn out to be Euso Cial said or. Bernie Crespi assistant professor of evolutionary biology at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia and the discoverer of the Euso Cial thrips. People have thought that everything had been More or less discovered but now that appears not to be the Case at Deborah s. Kent a researcher with the forestry commission of new South Wales in Australia discovered the Ambrosia Beetle s self sacrificing habits by Accident we weren t even looking for the beetles being Euso Cial Kent said. We were looking at them because they re an economic problem in eucalyptus plantations and regrowth and have been for the last 40 years. People had already studied them but never recognized what was going on. The More people look the More they la or. William d. Hamilton professor of evolutionary biology at Oxford University and a Pioneer in understanding the evolution of a sociality has a great respect for the phenomenon. It s the highest form of sociality he said and it s what enables the ants to dominate the tropics. No organism but Man so dominates everything that goes on in a tropical rain Forest Hamilton attributes the ants Success to their ability to organize their activities. Hamilton was one of the first researchers to begin to solve the Paradox of How the evolutionary struggle to survive and reproduce could give Rise to creatures that never reproduce and spend their lives altruistically helping others to survive. Ants bees and wasps known collectively As the Hymen opera All share an unusual genetic system in which males carry Only half the Normal number of chromosomes receiving a single set from their mothers. But a Hymen Poteran female in the More conventional fashion receives one set of chromosomes each from her Mother and father. Hamilton was the first to Point out that the unusual genetics of the Hymen opera have the curious effect of making a female More closely related to her Sisters than to even her own children since she shares three quarters of her genes in common with her siblings but Only half in common with her offspring. As a result in order to propagate More of her genes into future generations she can do better by staying in her mothers nest and helping to raise Sisters rather than reproducing herself. The idea was a breakthrough in understanding a sociality but not a Complete answer. While All Hymen opera have the same genetic system of sex determination not All Are Euso Cial. In addition termites naked mole rats and Ambrosia beetles All carry the Normal ratios of chromosomes from their mothers and fathers. So scientists have continued to search for a Factor besides genetics that lies at the heart of the drive to become Euso Cial. The new examples of a sociality hint that the nature of an animal s Home May hold the answer. As More Euso Cial species come to Light researchers note that a common thread is that of living inside a valuable resource like a hive or nest that has taken much labor to build and maintain and is valuable enough to die for. Naked mole rats whose lives were recently described in detail in Tine biology of the naked mole rat Princeton University pres build cavernous tunnels in which they live and love. Now a popular zoo animal to Rance mysterious creature nearly As ugly As it is intriguing is the Only Euso Cial mammal known. These Buck toothed rodents dig tunnels in the East african Savannah inside of which reign a reproductive Queen and several stud Kings. While the number of these " mole rats can Range up to 300 in a single Colony Many of these inhabitants will never reproduce. Many question remain for researchers about the origins of a sociality. In particular the naked mole rat has kept biologists asking Why no other mammal including humans has evolved sterile worker castes. Ants work together to accomplish Many tasks from gathering food to building and defending their colonies. Some varieties attack like insect armies. Business buzzing for travelling beekeepers by National geographic very Spring Joe Tweedy and Jeff Anderson stack their beehives on flatbed trucks and move 160 million bees from California to Minnesota. There amid flowering Fields the bees change the nectar of Clover and Basswood Trees into Honey. Every fall before the Minnesota Winter blows in Tweedy and his son in Law Anderson haul their hives Back to California where Farmers will rent the bees to pollinate Almond and Cherry Trees. Few kids fantasize about growing up to be caretaker and chauffeur for millions of stinging insects. And few Ever do such a thing of the 2,000 commercial beekeepers in the United states Only about half Migrate. Mobility pays off in two ways. First moving North in the summer and South in the Winter lets bees work a longer Blooming season making More Honey and Money for their keepers. Second beekeepers can carry their hives to Farmers who need bees to pollinate crops. Every year Anderson remembers two trips he d rather forget one was the Mother s Day mishap of 1985. It was unseasonably hot that May morning As Anderson and Tweedy strapped More than a 1,000 hives onto their two 18-wheelers and covered them with a Nylon net to prevent the bees from escaping. Leaving their Winter Home in the Central California town of Oak Date they rumbled North on Highway 99. South of Sacramento a Brown station Wagon suddenly Cut in front of Anderson who swerved left flipping his trailer and smashing open More than 500 hives. It was either take out a car or dump bees he says. A huge Cloud of bees stormed out and hovered Over the Road. The California Highway patrol came in to direct the traffic that backed up for Miles. Local to Crews swooped in. When the bees finally settled Down on the Side of an overpass men armed with flamethrowers incinerated the swarms. Five months later another disaster. After restocking his hives and harvesting the summer s Honey crop Anderson was driving his bees Back to California when the exhaust system under his truck sprang a leak. The resulting fire destroyed everything including the truck. Migratory beekeeping is nothing new. The ancient egyptians moved Clay hives probably on rafts Down the Nile to follow the seasonal Bloom and nectar flow As it moved toward Cairo. In the 1800s . Beekeepers experimented with the same idea moving bees on barges along the Mississippi River and on Waterways in Florida but their wooden hives kept falling into the water. Other keepers tried the Railroad and horse drawn wagons but neither proved practical. Not until the 1920s, when cars and trucks became affordable and roads improved did migratory beekeeping begin to catch on. Anderson and Tweedy became migratory beekeepers by the same twist of Fate each fell in love with a beekeepers daughter. When i started it did t take much Money just hard work says Tweedy s father in Law John Wells who got his first three hives from a Friend in 1937. He soon caught the beekeeping Bug and turned his Hobby into a business. Wells bought More hives and an old Chevy truck and started following Alfalfa and Orange blossoms in Southern and Central California. He was running 1,200 hives by 1955, when his daughter Florine married Tweedy who started helping with the bees. I was t sure for while if i wanted to stay with it because i did t like getting stung says Tweedy an Auto Mechanic by training. But the migratory life eventually won him Over. With bees. You re always seeing new in National geographic protective suits reduce the risk of being stung. 1962 they started migrating to Minnesota for the summer. The family s business California Minnesota Honey farms was born. Wells sold it to Tweedy in 1982 and retired but Wells and his wife Leona still make the migration to Minnesota. So do most of the 16 members of their extended family who live in five Mobile Homes and one Small House that sit in a semicircle around a big Oak tree in their California Home in Oakdale. Juggling migratory beekeeping and a family is no easy trick. Tweedy s eldest daughter Christi in now 36, remembers the Strain of starting each school year in Minnesota and finishing in California. It was hard changing friends and teachers she recalls. I just hated it so she and her husband Anderson decided to school their children at Home. Giving in California s Fertile Central Valley the family was poised to capitalize on one of the biggest changes in migratory beekeeping the dramatic Rise in the Ziemand for bees to pollinate crops. Directly or indirectly about a Quarter of the food americans eat depends on the Honeybee s Talent while foraging on Flowers bees Transfer male sexual matter pollen to the Flower s female part the stigma. Apples almonds watermelons plums cantaloupes pears avocados blueberries cranberries cherries cucumbers and kiwis All rely on bees for pollination. So do various seed crops including carrots cauliflower celery onions and sunflowers. Beekeepers tend to shrug off their major occupational Hazard. I Don t pay attention to How Many tires i get stung Tweedy says. The pain is still there but i Don t swell unless i get it in the eyeball or under a Fingernail. On the Tongue is awful painful. The private place is painful by mid april team Tweedy is ready to move the hives from Cherry Orchards and Manzanita to Orange Groves near Fresno. Navel oranges Don t need bees for pollination but Joe Tweedy can sell the Honey fragrant and Sweet not bitter like Almond Honey. To put his bees among these blossoms Tweedy pays the Orange grower about $100 a location. 18 the stars and stripes tuesday july 27,1993 the stars and stripes 19
