Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
8.1 Queen and Worker Phenotypes
h e most obvious evidence for higher levels of selection operating on
honey bee colonies is the dif erence in the phenotypes of the queen and
the workers. Queens and workers represent dif erent castes of females.
h e queen is highly reproductive, while workers are facultatively sterile.
Workers normally do not produce eggs except in the absence of the
queen and larvae. Workers and queens can develop from the same eggs.
Every fertilized egg is capable of producing either a queen or a worker.
Workers are reared in the many thousands of cells composing the combs
of a nest. Queens are raised in special, larger cells normally located on
the lower edges of combs near the center of the nest. Beekeepers take ad-
vantage of this by removing young larvae from worker-sized comb cells
and putting them in queen-sized cells. h is technique is called grat ing
(Figure 8.1). Beekeepers can raise dozens of new queens in a single colony
by manipulating it to induce a queen-rearing stimulus and then placing
Figure 8.1.
A frame of queen cells reared in a colony that had been manipulated
to induce queen-rearing behavior. Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey.
