Bumblebee Economics: Revised edition [Paperback]

Bernd Heinrich (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 30, 2004 | ISBN-10: 0674016394 | ISBN-13: 978-0674016392

In his new preface Bernd Heinrich ranges from Maine to Alaska and north to the Arctic as he summarizes findings from continuing investigations over the past twenty-five years--by him and others--into the wondrous "energy economy" of bumblebees.

Editorial Reviews

Review

This is a remarkable and rewarding book, complementary to, yet in some respects going far beyond, its predecessors. It is highly recommended.
--Caryl P. Haskins (New York Times Book Review 20041218)

Extraordinary...the implications of work such as Heinrich's seem to me more resonant than the promise of a rich harvest of new research.
--Fred Hapgood (Harper's Magazine )

A magnificent book that combines the best of both writing and science...Heinrich has performed a masterful job of sharing his personal research efforts and those of others in his field. He has written an extremely interesting book and in the process has shown how one kind of organism can be used as a model to investigate behavior, physiology, ecology and evolution. Bumblebee Economics should serve as a model for good scientific writing.
--Matthew M. Douglas (Quarterly Review of Biology )

Heinrich is the author of several notable books about nature. This one, first published in 1979, is a classic, a fascinating, readable study of life as organized (sort of) by a most endearing little creature. A new preface summarizes findings of the last quarter-century. A splendid work. (Globe and Mail )

About the Author

Bernd Heinrich is Professor Emeritus of Biology at the University of Vermont. He has written several memoirs of his life in science and nature, including One Man’s Owl, and Ravens in Winter. Bumblebee Economics was twice a nominee for the American Book Award in Science, and A Year in the Maine Woods won the 1995 Rutstrum Authors’ Award for Literary Excellence.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Harvard University Press (November 30, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0674016394
• ISBN-13: 978-0674016392
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #416,091 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Bernd Heinrich is a biologist and author of numerous books on the natural world. He lives in Richmond, VT, and in a cabin in the forests of western Maine.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars excellent meeting of biology and economics, June 26, 2001

By 

Lillian Finley (Williamstown, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bumblebee Economics (Hardcover)

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Heinrich presents relevant and well-considered research and experimental design in an accessible and easy-to-understand fashion. Having come off a bio class in which we did an extensive lab portion on population structure and evolution, I really enjoyed seeing such fascinating data on social insects. I was not, until having read Heinrich's book, familiar with the very major differences between honey and bumblebees. This book not only presents an excellent overview of how bumblebee's function (thermoregulation of flight muscles and suchforth) but also the economic factors (in pollen and nectar) that form the trade-offs that dictate behavior. Heinrich's observation that bumblebees develop 'major and minor' flower specialties that they exploit preferentially is a fascinating bit of information that synthesizes two commonly concieved as different fields.

I'd highly recommend this book as not just beach reading for scientists but as a brilliant and accessible book on a very common pollinator.

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliantly written, a classic, July 23, 1999

By 

Vernon L. Newhouse (Rosemont, Pennsylvania USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Bumblebee Economics (Paperback)

The author explains that Bumble-bee queens (which are not accompanied by a swarm of workers as are Honey-bees), must by themselves select and furnish a nest site, lay eggs and brood the resulting larva and then forage for pollen and nectar - whose sugar provides the energy needed for flying and nest warming. Heinrich brilliantly contrasts the foraging strategies of the bumble-bees with those of the plants which provide nectar and pollen and are in return cross-pollinated. He also explains how the bees control the heat flow from their thorax which contains the flight muscles, depending on whether they need to fly which requires a relatively high thorax temperature, or need merely to crawl, which allows them to dissipate less energy. The book concludes with a large set of references to the entomological literature at the time of publication, and a set of color plates to help in identifying about fifty North and Central American species of Bumble bees.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Science writing at its best, October 30, 1996

By A Customer

This review is from: Bumblebee Economics (Paperback)

The bumblebee spends its days gathering the resources needed by the hive -- honey for energy and pollen for protein. This endeavor requires expenditure of nearly all the energy resources that the bee is capable of acquiring. Living on the edge as they do, energy requirements inform every aspect of the bees' lives -- from the way they choose flowers to harvest all the way to the way that blood flow may be redirected between the muscles of the thorax and the lower abdomen. It may sound as dry as an economics text when I tell it, but the author transports you to his summer home in Maine, where he sits and watches the bees and then devises simple but elegant experiments to tease out the subtle relationships between energy, anatomy and behavior, and the energy balances between the individual and the hive, and between the adults and the newborns.