The Dark Side Of The Feminine Monarchie: Individual Behavior In Honey Bees, Dr. Robin Crewe

The Dark Side Of The Feminine Monarchie: Individual Behavior In Honey Bees

In his classic 1609 text, The Feminine Monarchie, or The Historie of Bees, Charles Butler perpetuated the idea that the bee colony is an ideal hierarchical organization model with the queen at the top dictating the labors of her workers below. This lecture will update Butler’s interpretation with a distinctly 21st century understanding of colony organization.

For a period of ten years, (1986-1996) while Director of the Communication Biology Research Group of the University of Witwatersrand, Robin’s work was focused on the study of honey bee chemical communication systems. He established the Social Insects Research Group at the University of Pretoria which continues with studies of social insects under the direction of Professor Christian Pirk. Professor Crewe has worked with honey bee research groups in France and Germany and has had a longstanding collaboration with Professor Robin Moritz of the University of Halle-Wittenberg in Germany.

Robin has published more than 140 articles in refereed journals, 15 articles in journals for beekeepers, 3 book chapters, and one book. He has made numerous contributions at scientific conferences. His current research is focused on chemical communication and social organization in honeybees and ants, particularly with respect to worker reproductive regulation.

Robin is a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society of London, a Fellow of the Royal Society of South Africa, a Fellow of the World Academy of Sciences, a founding member of the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf), a fellow of the African Academy of Science, and a Foreign Associate of Hassan II Academy of Science and Technology in Morocco. Professor Crewe was awarded the Gold Medal of the Zoological Society of South Africa and is an honorary life member of the Entomological Society of Southern Africa. The French government granted him the Ordre National du Mérite with the rank of Chevalier in 2006. He was awarded the prestigious Harry Oppenheimer Fellowship for 2012 and the ASSAf Gold Medal for meritorious service in 2013. He is currently a Senior Research Fellow in the Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship at the University of Pretoria.