In mode of life the great majority of insects are solitary. Each individual, lives to itself, and members of a species have no marked attraction for each other except at times of mating. Beyond placing the eggs or young on or near their food the parents usually take no interest in their offspring.
The parents usually die before their progeny mature, and consequently there is no opportunity for prolonged parent-offspring relationship. There are certain groups of insects, however, whose species has a social mode of life.
In honeybees social life is well developed and complex, embracing almost all phases of the individual’s activities. Their colonies are perenial, made possible by storing during the summer enough food to keep the colony alive through the colder months when there are no flowers to provide essential nectar and pollen.
In a honey bee nest (normally built in a hollow tree) there are vertical rows of wax cells or combs. A large number of the combs are used for raising the brood, but many are used for storage of food in the form of honey.
During the cold months, individuals of the colony are active, though sluggish, within the nest and by oxidation of foodstuffs in their bodies keep the nest temperature well above freezing.
In the breeding season, during spring or early summer, a large number of honey bee swarm to relieve the over-crowding and provide a means of colony reproduction, i.e., founding of new colonies.
On a fine forenoon, the old queen leaves the hive to establish a new one, accompanied by a large number of old workers and drones.
Left behind in the hive are the young workers and several new queens still in their cells but approaching the time of emergence.
Only one queen survives by stinging to death the other newly-hatched queens.
The prime swarm is led by the old queen while the second swarm is accompanied by the newly-emerged virgin queen.
About a week after emergence, the new queen takes her first aerial flight followed by a swarm of drones.
The queen flies very high and the drones gradually drop out the race. The last drone left in the race, mates with her.
Mating occurs in mid-air during which the queen receives spermatophores from the drone. After mating the drone dies. The pair then falls to the ground and the queen after pulling herself away returns to the hive not to leave it again until she grows old and leads a prime swarm.
Three or four days after mating, the young queen begins to oviposit. A fertilized egg is laid in a worker or queen cell while an unfertilized egg in a drone cell.
Unfertilized eggs produce male or drones that do no work. They stay around the nest for mating purposes but after a few weeks were driven out by the workers.
Fertilized eggs develop into either queens or workers, depending on the diet given the larvae.
Those fed “royal jelly” and afterwords pollen and nectar develop into workers; those fed royal jelly for their entire larval period develop into queens.
Since the workers do all the feeding, they determine the production of queens. In this feature the honey bee differs from all other social insects except some ants.
After
H. H. Ross
A Textbook of Entomology
3rd Edition
Page : (201-202)
Write an essay on social behaviour of honey bees
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