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Selfish Bees Masquerade Own Eggs as Royalty

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Not So Team-Oriented?

Nov. 30, 2007 -- The revolutionary-style activity of a type of honey bee has dealt a blow to the image of insects working co-operatively to benefit the colony.

In the ultimate overthrow of the monarchy, worker bees sneak their eggs into the colony so their offspring will be raised as royalty, according to new research by Lyndon Jordan of the University of Sydney, Australia.

To avoid detection, the workers wear a "queen perfume," says Jordan, a Ph.D. student from the School of Biological Sciences.

In an article in this week's Proceedings of the Royal Society B journal, Jordan describes her genetic analysis of South African Cape honey bees (Apis mellifera capensis).

Her study revealed 23 out of 39 new queens produced by seven colonies were offspring of workers and not the resident queen. Of these, eight were laid by resident workers, but most were offspring of parasitic workers from other colonies.

She points out the Cape honey bee is unique among honey bees because workers can produce females from unfertilized eggs in a process known as thelytoky.

This opens up a whole range of reproductive options for the Cape worker bee and allows it to effectively hijack the colony by competing with the queen to produce the next royal generation.

"Normally a worker is a terminating genetic line," Jordan said. "But these bees can be the mothers of the new queens."