Q13 of 465 Page 64

How bee colony works? What values can be seen in the organization of bee colony?

Honey bee lives in a colony and different tasks are done by different groups of bees in the same colony. According to their roles, there are three types of castes in the colony of bee:

(i) Queen - The body size of queen is much larger than other castes of bees of the colony. Queen is responsible for laying eggs and lays up to 200 eggs everyday of each season.


(ii) Drone - It is haploid, fertile male. These are larger in size than workers. They are stingless and their main role is to mate with queen and remain in colony to sleep and eat honey.


(iii) Worker - Worker is diploid, sterile female. Its size is smallest among the caste of bees. They are the active members of the colony. For various outdoor and indoor chores, the workers are provided with a variety of organs such as hypopharyngeal glands (for secretion of bee milk), wax glands (for building cells of comb), pollen baskets on their hind legs (for collection of pollen), sucking type mouthparts (for collecting the nectar), high level secretion of invertase enzyme (in the honey sac for honey formation), a sting at the tip of the abdomen for self defence and defence of the colony.


Honey bees provide a good example of teamwork and division of labour.


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