Describe the social organization of honey bees and one other non-human example.
honey bees
- 30,000 workers which are sterile and one fertile queen
- queen lays fertilized eggs in wax chambers built by workers
- eggs fed (up to 1300 times/day) by nurse workers (for 6 days)
- cells sealed, pupate (for 12 days), emerge as sterile worker (rest for 1-2 days)
- queen produces pheromones which keep workers sterile
- remain in hive as nurse for about a week
- spend additional time as housekeeper, wax producer
- become guard, making brief trips outside hive
- become forager, collecting nectar and pollen
- workers thus build, maintain and protect hive
- over winter, workers huddle around queen to keep warm
- in spring, queen lays unfertilized eggs, which develop into haploid male drones
- drones mate with queen from other hive during her nuptial flight
- queen stores sperm for lifetime (5-7 years)
- workers evict drones when they are not needed
- when pollen nectar peaks (spring), diet affects developing eggs
- richer diet: some eggs develop as queen candidates, workers enlarge cells
- old queen departs with about half of workers
- swarming behavior as workers + queen find and create new hive location
- in old hive, 1st new queen emerges; others queen candidates killed by workers
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