Gene Kritsky
Oxford University Press, New York
2010; 216 pages
ISBN: 978-0195385441
Price: $25 (hardcover)

For all entomologists, whatever their discipline, evolution provides perspective. Whether it be the phylogeny of Neuroptera during the Jurassic, the effects of temperature on the development of Hemiptera, or the genetic differentiation of Lepidoptera COI sequences (just to name a few from a recent Annals issue), placing insects into an evolutionary context informs us greatly about their biology and natural history. For the social insects (particularly the social Hymenoptera), evolution has been a cornerstone for the disciplines of behavioral ecology, pheromone chemistry, and biogeography. Indeed, the evolution of sociality itself through kin selection—the basal concept that reproductive altruism evolved through indirect selection among closely related individuals—is undergoing a feverish debate as to its relevance in the evolution of cooperative kin groups.

For better or for worse, Western honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) are the New York Yankees of social insects: vilified by some for monopolizing intellectual resources and the entomological spotlight, celebrated by others as a model system that has provided incredibly deep insights into insect societies. (For the record, I am a Red Sox fan as well as an Apis scientist). While these viewpoints are taken from a scientific perspective, the honey bee is without question the social insect most interwoven with human history (and arguably the most important insect throughout society). Rock art from Spain dates honey robbing back to at least 10,000 B.C.E depicting a sophisticated use of rope or grass ladders, the application of smoke to pacify the defensive behavior of bees, and even putative religious rites during the honey harvest, all of which suggest that honey bees were important to prehistoric human civilizations. The well-documented practice of beekeeping in ancient Egyptian, Greek, and Roman cultures confirms the importance of honey as the only food sweetener prior to cane sugar, an important substance in early medical practices, and even a basis by which taxes were collected by Ramses II. Even today, honey bees are depicted in everything from biologically inaccurate Hollywood cartoons to biopharmaceutical commercials and skits on Saturday Night Live.

Gene Kritsky’s new book, The Quest for the Perfect Hive, explores the interface between humans and honey bees. Rather than taking a general approach of all possible connections (as so many have done before him), he is very systematic in dissecting a singular yet fundamental aspect of human–bee interaction: how the current bee hive has come into being. In doing so, he uses an evolutionary approach to describing the hive, as each manifestation throughout history has been built upon the previous. He describes how the early log and gum hives—basically hollowed tree trunks on their side or upright, respectively—were utilized by the ancients, as well as how they were manipulated to harvest honey. He outlines the development of the first bee skeps, those inverted woven straw baskets that are so intimately associated with beekeeping that they are still used as quintessential symbols of beekeeping despite not being used by contemporary beekeepers.

The book also describes the advent of various innovations to the skep, such as supernumerary inverted baskets to collect surplus honey without killing the bees (hence the apiculture term “honey super”) and glass jars with sliding doors to regulate honey storage, collection, and presentation. Kritsky also outlines the various designs of moveable-comb hives (such as the Greek and the Kenyan top-bar hives) and moveable-frame hives (such as Huber’s leaf hive and the Munn hive). He then goes on to depict how the incorporation of the “bee space” by Reverend Lorenzo Langstroth revolutionized the beehive by optimizing the distance between combs (bees build additional combs in spaces greater than 3/8”, but do not have sufficient room to walk on both internal surfaces with less space). It is this general design, patented over 150 years ago, that beekeepers still use today.

Unlike insect societies, the evolution of human thought follows Lamarckian rather than Darwinian selection. Nonetheless, through this slow, painstaking process of trial and error, beekeepers have developed a remarkable system for managing honey bees by housing them in a wide assortment of hives throughout our history. Kritsky’s Quest deftly explores the evolution of this process to provide us all with a valuable perspective of the world’s most storied insect. Evolution provides perspective, such as it is for all entomologists.

David R. Tarpy
Associate Professor
and Extension Apiculturist
Department of Entomology
North Carolina State University

American Entomologist
Vol. 57, No.2, Summer 2011

Disclaimer:Gene R. Kritsky is the Editor of American Entomologist and was not involved in the editing of this book review.