HoneyBee and its life cycle

1. Honeybee
social organization and life cycle

2. HONEYBEE
BY-ANKITA
SAHAY (12BSZBC003)
NIDHI SINGH (12BSLSCFS004)

3. CLASSIFICATION
Phylum- Arthropoda
Subphylum-Mandibulata
Class- Insecta
Subclass- Pterygota
Division- Endopterygota
Order- Hymnoptera
Family- Apidae
Genus- Apis

4.  Honeybee is a social insect living in colonies of 50,000 or
more individuals.
 Honeybees are mostly vegetables feeders preferably
living on pollen and nectar of flowers.
 The honeybees live in highly organized colony wherein a
perfect corporate life under strict discipline is exhibited.
 Excellent division of labour. With the common aim of
keeping the good of the society in view, make the life very
harmonious and extremely busy.

5. CONTI…….
Honey bees live in hives.
Three spices of Apis mainly found in
India:
- Apis dorsata(Rock bee)
- Apis florea
- Apis indica

7. SOCIAL ORGANISATION OF
HONEYBEES….
A highly organized division of
labour is found in the colony of
honey bee .
consisting of 3 castes
Queen bee
Worker bee &
Drones.

8. QUEEN
The queen is the only sexually
productive female in the colony and thus
is the mother of all drones, workers, and
future queens .
The queen is capable of
producing up to 2,000 eggs each
day.
15-20mm long with tapering
abdomen and short legs and
wings.

9. Queen can
survive up to
five years.
It’s fed on
royal jelly
only.
Queens
control their
workers by
releasing
pheromones
known as
the queen’s
scent.
Get fertilized
only once in
her life time
where drone
release
cores of
sperms.

10. The drone is the male
member of the honey
bee colony which
fertilizes the queen so
called as king of the
colony.
Developed
parthenogenetically
from unfertilized
eggs.
They take 24 days
to developed from
the egg to the adult
stage.

11. 500-1000 in number.
Large eyes, reduced mouth parts, powerful wings.
The sting and the wax glands are absent.
In the males the reproductive organs are very well
developed.

12. WORKER:-
 Smallest of the three caste.
 Produced from fertilized egg.
 They develop from egg to adult in
21 days.
 Life span- six weeks.
 All outdoors and indoors activity
are perform by worker honeybee.

13. WORKER HONEYBEES ARE PROVIDED BY SPECIAL
STRUCTURES FOR DIFFERENT WORK
Long
proboscis.
Strong
wings.
Pollen
basket.
Powerful
sting.
Wax
gland.

14. HONEY BEE WITH FULL OF POLLEN BASKET

15.  Workers are grouped for specialized duties.
 Nursery bee attempt the queen and look after nursery.
 Builder bee produce wax for preparation of hives.
 Repairers bee repair the hives.
 Cleaner bee keeps clean the hives from dead body and
other impurities.
 Fanners perform fanning.
 Guard bees protect the hives from any external attack.

16. Life cycle

18. LIFE CYCLE
 The life cycle of a honey bee is perennial.
 Queen takes a Nuptial flight and followed by drones.
 Queen receives spermatophore and stores them into
spermatheca.
 Fertilization takes place.
 Queen lays egg in brood cell.
 Honey bee queens are able to lay unfertilized eggs.
 After some time egg hatches and larvae emerges out.
 Larvae emerges from both fertilized and unfertilized
eggs.
 Worker honeybee feed hatched larvae.

19. EGGS IN BROOD CELLS

20.  The larvae emerges from the fertilized
eggs are fed on the royal jelly only for
five days.
 Larvae reaches full growth.
 Brood cell is sealed by the worker bee.
 Larvae converted into pupa and then
adult bee comes out of the sealed brood
cell.
 All the bees goes through a complete
metamorphosis division.

21. Honeybee pupa

23. Each member of a colony
develops as an adult over
varying durations.
Queens become full-grown
adults within 16 days; drones
develop in under 24 days.
Female workers require 21
days during larval and pupa
development.

24. ADULT HONEYBEE…..

25. When an existing queen dies or
becomes incapable of laying eggs,
worker honey bees raise a new queen.
As the new queen becomes a young
adult, she attends a nuptial flight,
mating with several drones.
With sperm stored from the mating
flight, she begins to lay eggs inside the
hive.

26. In order for a colony to survive, the honey bee
queen needs to lay a plentitude of fertilized eggs.
workers will forage for food, build a strong and well-insulated
hive, take care of larvae and defend the
colony from enemies.
As a queen ages, she produces fewer eggs, and
the pattern of the eggs within each cell begins to
appear less orderly.

27. Swarming:-
The process of leaving the colony by the queen with a large group of
worker bees is called swarming.
Supersedure:-
when the egg laying capacity of the old queen is lost, it dies or new
queen takes the position of the old queen.
Absconding:-
Migration of the complete colony from one place to another due to some
unfavorable conditions.

28. Fact about honeybees