Social Life of Honeybees and Wasps PDF

## Animal Behaviour: Social Behaviour ### 1. Social System in Wasps - A wasp colony is formed by a single female called the _queen_. - The queen develops into a separate offspring with a selective appetite for her host. - The queen lays eggs that develop into separate offspring, some of which cann...

## Animal Behaviour: Social Behaviour ### 1. Social System in Wasps - A wasp colony is formed by a single female called the _queen_. - The queen develops into a separate offspring with a selective appetite for her host. - The queen lays eggs that develop into separate offspring, some of which cannibalize before they mature. - The queen is a precocious larva that never metamorphoses into an adult, instead devoting their life to killing their siblings. - This behaviour is caused by the haplodiploid system of sex determination and closer relatedness among sisters. - The queen's goal is to ensure that more food will be available for her maturing sisters. - The queen gains indirect fitness benefits from this selective cannibalism. - Once the eggs hatch, the newborn larvae are fed water, nectar, and fragments of insect prey by the female wasps. - The first female wasps that emerge assist their mother in raising more daughters, their sisters and cousins. - These worker wasps are slightly smaller than the queen and can have functional ovaries, but rarely lay eggs. - The worker wasps work for the colony by adding cells, feeding the larvae, detecting and driving off parasites, and stinging predators. - The queen produces "lazy" females that do not join the work force as summer progresses. - These lazy females lounge about and steal food from their working sisters. - Later in the summer, males emerge for the first time and do not aid the welfare of the colony. - Activity decreases at the nest as lazy females and males fly off to mate with members of other colonies. - The males die and the mated females become colony foundresses. - Colony foundresses hibernate through the winter months and resume the cycle in the following spring. ### 2. Social System in Honeybee - Honey bees live in colonies of hundreds of bees. - Each colony has a queen which is somewhat larger than the worker bees. - The queen lays eggs that develop into new workers, drones (males), and queens. - The queen emits pheromones that regulate the behaviour of the workers. - Genetically, Queens and workers are diploid and both are females. - Queens are fed a special rich food, royal jelly, that is necessary for normal queen size and sexual development. - Workers can develop into sexually reproducing females but their reproductive organs are kept undeveloped through the influence of the queen's pheromone. - Drones are haploid genetically and are males that are produced by the laying of unfertilized eggs (parthenogenetically). - Drones are produced at the same time as new queens. ### 3. Nest of a social bee - The social bees are the premier nonhuman architects and are the social insects whose beautifully designed homes provide protection from both predators and climatic dangers. - _Melipona interrupta_ builds its nest in the hollow of a tree branch. - The nest has a complex structure. - The nest includes a storage pot, entrance, involucrum, batumen plate, and brood comb. ### 4. Swarm of a social bee - The hive of honeybees prepares to swarm when the old queen becomes weak, which serves as a signal for workers to begin raising new larvae. - The old queen leaves with a group of workers and forms a new colony. - A new queen hatches and displaces the old queen. - The new queen kills any other newly-hatched rivals and flies off to mate. - The new queen mates with drones that have aggregated in large flying clouds. - The new queen returns to her hive, lays her eggs, and regulates the behaviour of workers. ### 5. Life of a honeybee worker - Honeybee workers live for about 6 weeks. - They spend the first 3 days cleaning out cells and then begin feeding the older larvae a mixture of pollen and honey. - They feed the younger larval jelly from the 6th to 14th day. - The worker becomes a forager bringin pollen and nectar to the colony when it reaches 3 weeks of life. - Honeybee workers have a very complex structure. - The head consists of nurse glands. - The abdomen consists of wax glands. ### 6. Major activities of a worker bee - A worker bee first cleans the hive, then tends the brood, builds more cells of comb, guards the nest entrance, and finally forages for pollen and nectar. - This behavioural sequence is correlated with physiological changes in the nurse glands and wax glands. ### 7. Orientation flights of honeybee - Many insects make special "orientation flights." - The bees make a "fix" of the home area's position relative to the sun and landmarks nearby. - If a honeybee colony is shut up in the hive and moved to a new site, a large proportion of the workers make orientation flights when they first leave the hive. - They hover outside the entrance hole and then circle, gradually increasing their distance from it before flying off. - Bees learn the new position in sufficient detail to be able to return from long foraging flights. ### 8. Social Life in Termites (White ants) - Termites are social and polymorphic insects, living in large and well organized colonies. - They differ from other social insects in having a larger number of castes. - There are three reproductive castes and two sterile castes. - The three reproductive or fertile castes are: - Macropterous or winged forms. - Brachypterous or short-winged forms. - Apterous or wingless forms. - The two sterile castes are: - _Workers_ - _Soldiers_ - Workers perform all the duties except reproduction and defense. - Soldiers defend the colony.