Bee specialist at KU
Charles D. Michener has been buggy about bees for a long time.
As a boy he was interested in all kinds of insects. So interested, in fact, he started collecting and drawing all the kinds he could find.
Then one day during summer vacation he found an insect he could not identify.
"I would run through the keys of all the entomology books I had, but to no avail. Each year I would find this insect; I puzzled over this for years."
Now the Elizabeth M. Watkins Distinguished Professor of Entomology is taking a year's sabbatical leave "in order to complete work on two books about bees."
Ultimately he was able to identify the bee which led to his life long interest in bees.
The soft-spoken professor hastened to explain, however, that "leave" was not correct since he would be in Lawrence to complete the books.
"One of the main reasons in
staying here instead of getting away from the telephone is that my library is here." he said. "I have a very good punch card index of library material which my secretary, Mrs. Weaver, makes up for me.
"I would be lost without these things, so I'll stay home and lock the door . . . it has been done."
Michener said one book deals with the social behavior of bees and the other is a general work on solitary and social bees.
He said in many ways the best known insect is the honey bee.
"More has been written about the honey bee than any of the 20,000 kinds of bees in the world." he added.
The queen bee always seems to come up in any discussion of bees, and the entomologist happily explained how the queen bee is "chosen."
He said it has to do with the kind of cell in which the egg is placed.
"The workers make special cells called queen cells. However,
in order to make these cells the queen bee must stop producing "queen substance" which inhibits the workers from making queen cells."
As the queen grows old or dies and is unable to produce the substance the workers were able to construct the queen cells. He said it was his impression this also occurs in late spring when the species needs to multiply itself.
Queen substance, a relatively recent discovery, is produced in the mandibular glands of the queen bee. Discovered in 1954, it was isolated and synthesized in 1961. It is known chemically as a complex fatty acid.
Some entomologists believe the bee is one of the smartest insects.
"Bees have some of the most intricate behavior patterns and are among the most plastic of insects—that is, they have great ability to learn or modify their behavior." Michener said.
Bees have a different social
organization, he said. Nearly all of their social responses are inherited. "That isn't to say insects can't learn, they do learn some things."
For example, they learn to get their food and get back to the nest, he said. It can be demonstrated experimentally that they use wind direction and the position of the sun to guide them. They also use landmarks, he said, such as trees and houses, but they don't learn basic social interactions, he added.
Smiling quietly, he mused,
"Maybe inheritance is the
efficient way to learn to speak
and spell. It would certainly be
easier."
Bees communicate with each other using a variety of odorous chemicals called pheromones.
Michener euphemistically likened pheromones to "perfumes" as used by man.
Pheromones are similar to hormones except pheromones function between individuals (bees) and hormones function between organs.
A colony of bees could be likened to an organ with each bee a part of that organ with his own duty to perform, Michener said.
Comparing the insect culture with man's, Michener explained;
Different chemicals are secreted at different times, depending upon what the bee wishes to communicate, through glands located on their bodies.
with man's, Michener explained:
"Man has a learned system of responses so he can modify his culture in the course of a generation or less. An insect can only modify its culture in an evolutionary sense.
"For social attributes to evolve in insects is a matter of biological evolution. Major changes require very long periods of time.
"In the case of man you can make a major change with a generation or less. A leader can do great things. In the insect world there is no such thing as a leader. A queen bee does not lead, she is just a prisoner of her inheritance. So is the worker."
Charles D. Michener
Photo by Gloria Vobejda
Chief of Mau Mau Society to speak at KU
Charles Kenyatta, chairman of the Mau Mau Society of Harlem and Honorary Chairman of the Joint African Committee on Biafra, will be at KU, April 22, for a one-day series of speeches, the KU Chapter of the American Committee to Keep Biafra Alive announced yesterday.
Kenyatta, a former Black Muslim member, will be guest of honor at an 11:30 a.m. luncheon
2 KANSAN Apr.17 1969
in a reserved room of the Kansas Union cafeteria. He will also have a closed meeting with Black Students Union representatives later in the day.
Kenyatta will speak at 8 p.m. in the Kansas Union Forum Room on the topic, "What is Truth in Biafra." The public is invited to attend.
Kenyatta visited Biafra in November 1968, where he interviewed many Biafrans, including Colonel Ojukwu, leader of the Biafrans.
Commenting on his trip,
Kenyatta said, "My visit to Biafra opened my eyes to the inhumane situation that is strangling our black brothers in certain parts of Africa."
Kenyatta said it was the first time he had seen black people put the word "self-determination" into operation.
MOSCOW (UPI) — The Soviet Union has launched another in its series of unmanned satellites, the news agency Tass reported. It said Cosmos 279 was reported to be functioning normally.
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