Ingeborg Beling

Ingeborg Beling (6 March 1904 – 15 January 1988) was a German ethologist from the early 20th century who worked in the field of chronobiology. She studied at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU) under the direction of Karl Von Frisch and is known for her research on the time sense of honey bees. In her research, in 1929, she trained bees to come to a feeding station at a specific time of day, day after day. This contribution ultimately led to the discovery of the bees’ 24-hour biological clock. Because of this achievement, she was regarded as one of the first female chronobiologists. Beyond honeybees, much of Beling's work involved studying behaviors of wasps, fly pupae, etc. Finally, she also did some research in pest control.

Bee-feeding experiment (1929)

Contributions to chronobiology Beling was able to show that bees have an astonishing memory of time. She found that this time memory is both rigorous (the bees consistently show up at the expected time) and flexible (the bees can be trained to show up any time of night or day, even two or three times a day). Beling found that bees could only train to periods close to 24 hours. This 24-hour rhythm in bees has biological significance in that it is evolutionarily advantageous, helping the bees coordinate with flowers when they are gathering nectar and helping them avoid flying at dangerous predator-filled times of day. The bees' anticipation of the feeding is also advantageous - by knowing the time of day, the bees can prepare themselves for the meal and enable a faster response. Beling's research was unable to conclusively show whether bees have some kind of internal biological clock that is controlling this behavior or if there is some external cue acting as a Zeitgeber that she did not account for in her experiments.

Related terms Much of the early work in chronobiology was done in Germany, so publications were largely written in German. Some terms created at this time are still being used or often referred to today. The father of chronobiology, Colin Pittendrigh, critiqued these terms, saying that researchers at LMU Munich have trouble letting go of these terms. He argues that ‘training’ and ‘memory’ do not capture the innate components of the behavior. Word Meaning Creator Dressurzeit Max Renner A chronobiologist also at LMU Munich in the 1960s who flew bees from Paris to New York. Colin Pittendrigh Father of modern chronobiology