It appears, therefore, that a swarm's scout bees do something sharply different from what humans do to reach a full agreement in a debate. Both bees and humans need a group's members to avoid stubbornly supporting their first view, but whereas we humans will usually (and sensibly) give up on a position only after we have learned of a better one, the bees will stop supporting a position automatically. As is shown...after a shorter or longer time, each scout bee becomes silent and leaves the rest of the debate to a new set of bees.
Read the rest about Thomas D. Seeley's "Honeybee Democracy" here.
[HT: The Cranky Professor]
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