Honey bees and social wasps independently evolved hexagonal cells in their nests, but in some species, cell size dimorphism creates an inherent tiling problem. This study shows that despite independent evolutionary origins, building materials, and comb configurations, all species solve this architec...
Honey bees and social wasps independently evolved hexagonal cells in their nests, but in some species, cell size dimorphism creates an inherent tiling problem. This study shows that despite independent evolutionary origins, building materials, and comb configurations, all species solve this architectural problem using the same solution.
This is interesting, I always thought the hexagonal pattern was simply a result of forced circle packing. (i.e., if you squeeze a handful of straws and look at the cross section, they begin to form hexagons)