Social organisation in honey bees

1. Social Organisation in
Honey Bees
VIGNESH. O
ROLL NO. 617

2. Honey bees - the most fascinating
creature of the earth
 Honey bees are social insects
 Lives together in large colonies
 Lives in combs or nests
 Mutual cooperation exists!
 Developed communication – Dances!
 Defence and division of labour

3. About Colony
 Consists of egg, larvae and pupae (brood) and adults.
 No. varies with species
 Colony consists of Workers, Drones and a Queen
(polymorphism)
 Each member has definite task
 Can’t survive individually
 Pheromone distribution and “Dances” are necessary for
survival of colony

4. Honey Comb – The House of Bees
 Hexagonal cells
 Made of Wax secreted by workers abdomen
 Hangs vertically
 Two types of cells present – Honey cells (upper) and
brood cells (lower and middle).
 Honey cells stores pollen, nectar and honey
 Brood cells are meant to rear the brood

6. Worker Queen Drone

7. Queen – Progenitor of Colony
 Only fertile female of colony
 Larger in size
 Developed ovaries
 Function – Egg laying
 One queen for one hive – fed with Royall Jelly
 They have
 Broad thorax
 Well developed notched mandibles
 Reduced mouth parts
 Small eyes, brain

8.  Lacks
 Salivary glands
 Wax glands
 Pollen brushes
 Pollen basket
 Honey sacks

9.  Mate only once
 Lays about 1500-2000 eggs everyday
 Egg hatch out into larva, which pupate and finally develop into adults.
 Worker bees feed young ones.
 Queen receive more royal jelly
 Life span is 5-8 yrs.
 Fertility decreases with ageing

10. Special Care!
 Workers give food, care and protection, prepare comb to Queen and clean
her to lay eggs.
 Produces air-borne pheromones (“queen substance”) that keep the colony
functioning orderly, loyal and protective to that queen

11. Drones
 Fertile male
 Fertilize the virgin queen
 Referred as King of the colony
 They have
 Short and stout body (larger than worker bees)
 Large holo optic eyes
 Small and pointed mandibles
 Extremely short proboscis
 Unspecialized mouthparts
 Sting, salivary glands, wax glands, pollen sac and honey sac absent.

12.  Well developed male reproductive structures present.
 Reared from unfertile egg in large drone cell
 Depend workers for honey
 Live for 5-6 weeks
 Dies after copulation
 Responsible for passing colony’s gene on to next
generation.

13. Workers
 Non reproductive females
 Smaller in size
 Specialized body for pollen and nectar collection
 They possess
 Long triangular head
 Large and lateral compound eyes
 Long proboscis
 Well developed sting apparatus
 Strong wings for fanning
 Pollen basket

14. • Wax gland
• Powerful sting (defense)
• Honey sac (for storing and carrying nectar)
• Pharyngeal glands (for secreting royal jelly)
• Salivary glands (for chemical modification of
nectar)

15.  They are also called neuters – since they don’t have mating instincts and
reproductive powers
 Produced from fertile eggs laid by queen
 Live in worker cell of comb
 Lives for 6 weeks
 Perform all brood care, hive maintenance and defense
 2 groups
 House bees or residents – stay in nest for domestic duties
 Field bees or foragers – outdoor workers – visits fields, forests and
gardens and collect pollen, nectar, propolis and gum

16.  Foragers are of 2 types
 Searchers and collectors.
 Searchers inform collectors for collecting pollen,
nectar etc. after searching

17. More Classes
Group Function
Builders Make wax cells, comb construction
Cleaners Removes excreta, debris and dead bodies
Fanners Ventilate comb by beating wings
Storekeepers Receive pollen load from collectors and store
Nurses Take care of queen, egg, larvae etc.
Brewers Produce honey
Guards or
soldiers
Guard and protects the colony from intruders

18.  There are repairers who seal the holes and repair the
comb.
 Waiters watch the queen chamber and attend the
queen

19. Temporal Polyethism
 Rather than specializing in one job only, the workers
progresses through colony tasks in predictable order
based on ages.
 Regulated Juvenile Hormone JH
 Young concentrate in central area cleaning brood
cells and taking care of queen
 When they age, they involve in building comb,
receiving pollen and nectar etc.

20. Bee Dance
Karl von Frisch (1886 -1982)
- Austrian Ethologist
-Nobel Prize 1973 in
Physiology or Medicine
- ”The dance, language and
orientation of bees” 1993
- First to discover the dance
of the honeybees

21. Dance – in Communication
The two dances that von Frisch first observed in honeybees

22. The Dance
- Unique animal communication system
-A bee can communicate the location of a profitable food source to its
followers
-What the bee communicates:
-Distance and Direction
-Odour
-Presence of a profitable source
“One of the greatest discoveries of behavioural science” - Gould 1995

23. Thanks