Alright, there’s sufficient frequent data floating round that for those who’re studying this submit, you in all probability already know the reply to “are there king bees?” In case you don’t, it’s “no.” There are not any king bees. Ant colonies, like bees, additionally don’t have “king ants.” Most colonizing bugs don’t have “king” counterparts to their queens, with one key exception: termites. So whereas we have been fast to reply the “king bees” piece, we hopefully baited you into being inquisitive about why termites are distinctive for having kings.
Additional Studying: What’s the Distinction Between Bees, Hornets, and Wasps?
How Do You Make a Queen Bee?
Typically talking, queen bees are the reproductively-mature bees within the hive. They’re in all probability extra precisely described as a “mom bee,” since a hive’s queen is usually the organic mom of the overwhelming majority of bees in a given hive. Most beehives will solely have one queen, although some species might have “dwarf” queens to switch the principle queen if she dies randomly.
Queen bees don’t come about randomly—they’re truly engineered by employee bees for essentially the most half. Employee bees feed rising larvae within the hive royal jelly. It’s largely water and sugar. Potential queen bees get to dwell in specifically constructed cells, they usually get fed a lot of royal jelly. Getting fed an extra of royal jelly is what triggers the possible queen larva to develop ovaries able to laying eggs. Larvae destined to grow to be employee bees are nonetheless fed royal jelly, however solely early on of their growth. They begin getting fed “bee bread,” which is generally nectar and pollen different staff have collected. There’s some social commentary to be made right here that entails a queen bee saying “allow them to eat jelly” or one thing right here, however let’s simply snicker on the concept of “bee bread” and ignore the regularly rising costs of shopper items that tariffs will solely worsen and—
Sorry. Bees.
As soon as a model new queen emerges, her first precedence is to seek out and kill all different potential rival queens. The previous queen might depart with a contingent of her staff referred to as a “prime swarm,” in any other case, a brand new queen might permit the previous one to dwell out the remainder of her life after which change her. In some bee species, new queens would possibly simply run away and search for a queenless hive to take over. If a queen dies unexpectedly, staff will expedite this course of by flooding a handful of larvae with royal jelly. This produces an “emergency queen” who is commonly smaller than a traditional queen.
Why Do Termites Have Kings?
Bees, ants, and wasps (in all probability the massive three you consider if you consider “social bugs with queens”) are all a part of the order Hymenoptera. In these eusocial hives, males exist to fertilize eggs for the queen—then die. Termites are a part of the order Blattodea, and are extra intently associated to cockroaches than they’re to bees and ants. There’s a key distinction between termite queens and hymenopteran queens: termite queens can’t retailer sperm. Bee, wasp, and and queens can retailer all of the sperm they’ll ever want for his or her lifetime early on, whereas termite queens want a relentless inflow to take care of their colony’s inhabitants. Because of this king termites exist; they supply sperm for the queen.
King and queen termites each attend to the development of a colony in its early days, they usually’re all the time going to be physiologically completely different from regular termites. They’re a part of the reproductive termite caste, and are the one ones born with wings. That is so potential kings and queens can go distant from their previous colony to begin a brand new one. As soon as they’re settled down, they shed their wings and the queen turns into an enormous ovary that lays eggs. The king stays wanting like an even bigger termite.
Termite queens primarily select whether or not or not new termites throughout the “reproductive caste” might be created by producing a pheromone that inhibits their birthing. Some species of queen/king pairs produce new queens and kings seasonally to fly out and make new colonies, since some termite queens can dwell as much as 50 years. New kings and queens are referred to as “alate termites,” and can pair collectively earlier than flying out to ascertain their new colony. They continue to be monogamous for all times.
Talking of insect orders, see if you recognize which of them are the most important right here.
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