Bees are eusocial - what is it?
What is it?- There are many types of social behaviour in animals
- Solitary
- Live alone
- No care for the young - lay eggs and leave.
- Subsocial
- Some care of the young
- Communal
- Shared nest
- Social
- Shared nest
- Shared care of the young
- Eusocial
- Reproductive division of labour.
- Queens can never be workers.
- Workers cannot lay fertilised eggs
- Overlapping generations
- A colony may have eggs, larvae and adults present.
- Cooperative care of young
- Workers look after young that are not theirs.
- The Queen plays no part in the care of the young
- Highest level of social living
- A colony may be called a "superorganism"
Advantages of eusocial living.
- The queen does nothing but lay eggs, workers go foraging.
- A Queen is most vulnerable on her mating flight.
- An Asian Hornet queen at the start of season has to forage and feed young
- This is when her family is most vulnerable.
- The guard bees will sacrifice themselves for the colony
- The self sacrifice of the worker for the colony is an example of the "selfish gene" at work.
- The workers and the queen share 50% of their genetic information.
- The sacrifice by a guard bee ensures the genes continue to exist.
- A division of labour is a very efficient way of running a colony.