Reproductive behaviours: Humble Honey Bee

Hi all

This series of blogs is about unusual reproductive behaviors in animals.

Many animals have strange ways of reproducing, but some animals seem to go above and beyond to pass on their genes.

This week I will talk about the humble honey bee (Apis mellifera).

I’m sure many of you have watched a honey bee, hypnotically gazing as he collects pollen from a beautiful flower but have you ever watched a bee and wondered how It came to be? How in fact did these bees’ parents make that pretty little thing that creates the best thing to ever be applied to a crumpet?

Well it’s not as romantic or sexy as one might think.

Although not in first class with Qantas at 30,000 feet, copulation does occur mid-flight. The drone (male honey bee) will mount the virgin queen and attempt to insert his endophallus (Penis) into the queen’s vagina (Baer 2005, p.1-4). If successful he will then ejaculate his semen and this is when things become really interesting. When the drone ejaculates the action is quite literally explosive. The semen is exploded into the queen with such force, it is said the can be heard by the human ear.

But wait there’s more…….

This poor little guy’s endophallus is also ripped off and left stuck in the queen along with some of his abdomen. Sadly, he dies shortly after.

It is thought that this behavior has evolved more for social bees, especially ones that are polyandry (mate with more than one) as it ensures that the semen stays with the female for longer. Whereas some solitary bees such as the bumblebee (b.terrestris) are known to be monogamous and can mate up to 10 times a day with an average of 30 or so minutes each round. The bumble bee also assures that his semen is staying put and is able to produce a gelatinous like plug that he uses to clog up the bersa copulatrix (Goulson 2003).

Although this may seem extreme it is a good example of a highly evolved reproduction method.