ENVS 2210 Lecture Notes - Western Honey Bee, Sphecidae, Carl Linnaeus
9 Dec 2022
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A honey bee is an insect of the order hymenoptera (insects with four membranous wings) As all insects, bees have three pairs of legs and their body is segmented. There are three types of individuals in a bee colony: the queen, the worker and the drone. Queens and workers are females and drones are males. The queen has two main functions in the colony: 1) to lay eggs (the only reproductive female in the colony) and 2) to produce pheromones (chemicals) that help maintain colony cohesion, stimulate food foraging and regulate colony reproduction. Lives two - five years longer than the worker bees. Drones or male bees develop from unfertilized eggs (they have mother but lack father); thus, they only carry half the genetic makeup of that carried by female bees. The only function that drones have is to mate with virgin queens during spring and summer. Worker bees are females with undeveloped reproductive organs.
