Why There Are No King Bees

2024-08-07

[public] 276K views, 34.5K likes, dislikes audio only

Download Opera for FREE here: https://opr.as/Opera-browser-minuteearth

Beehives always have a queen, who is the mother of the entire hive. But have you ever wondered, what happened to the king, if there was ever any? Can a male bee become a king?

LEARN MORE

**************

To learn more about this topic, start your googling with these keywords:

- Haplodiploidy: is a sex-determination system in which males develop from unfertilized eggs and are haploid, and females develop from fertilized eggs and are diploid.

- Sex determination in honeybees: In honeybees, the drones (males) are entirely derived from the queen, their mother. The diploid queen has 32 chromosomes and the haploid drones have 16 chromosomes. Drones produce sperm cells that contain their entire genome, so the sperm are all genetically identical except for mutations.

- Eusocial: showing an advanced level of social organization, in which a single female or caste produces offspring and nonreproductive individuals cooperate in caring for the young.

- Fertilize: cause (an egg, female animal, or plant) to develop a new individual by introducing male reproductive material.

- Genetics: the study of heredity and the variation of inherited characteristics.

- Queen Bee: the single reproductive female in a hive or colony of honeybees.

- Sterile: not able to produce children or young.

SUPPORT MINUTEEARTH

**************************

If you like what we do, you can help us!:

- Become our patron: https://patreon.com/MinuteEarth

- Our merch: http://dftba.com/minuteearth

- Our book: https://minuteearth.com/books

- Share this video with your friends and family

- Leave us a comment (we read them!)

CREDITS

*********

Cameron Duke | Script Writer, Narrator and Director

Arcadi Garcia i Rius | Storyboard Artist

Ever Salazar | Illustration, Video Editing and Animation

Sarah Berman | Illustration, Video Editing and Animation

Nathaniel Schroeder | Music

MinuteEarth is produced by Neptune Studios LLC

https://neptunestudios.info

OUR STAFF

************

Lizah van der Aart • Sarah Berman • Cameron Duke

Arcadi Garcia i Rius • David Goldenberg • Melissa Hayes

Alex Reich • Henry Reich • Peter Reich

Ever Salazar • Leonardo Souza • Kate Yoshida

OUR LINKS

************

Youtube | https://youtube.com/MinuteEarth

TikTok | https://tiktok.com/@minuteearth

Twitter | https://twitter.com/MinuteEarth

Instagram | https://instagram.com/minute_earth

Facebook | https://facebook.com/Minuteearth

Website | https://minuteearth.com

Apple Podcasts| https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/minuteearth/id649211176

REFERENCES

**************

Cowan, D. P., and J. K. Stahlhut. “Functionally Reproductive Diploid and Haploid Males in an Inbreeding Hymenopteran with Complementary Sex Determination.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 101, no. 28, 1 July 2004, pp. 10374–10379, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0402481101

Engel, M. S. “Monophyly and Extensive Extinction of Advanced Eusocial Bees: Insights from an Unexpected Eocene Diversity.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 98, no. 4, 13 Feb. 2001, pp. 1661–1664, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.98.4.1661

“Haplodiploidy - an Overview | ScienceDirect Topics.” https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/biochemistry-genetics-and-molecular-biology/haplodiploidy

Joshi, Chinmay Hemant, and John J. Wiens. “Does Haplodiploidy Help Drive the Evolution of Insect Eusociality?” Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, vol. 11, 16 Mar. 2023, https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2023.1118748

Nowak, Martin A., et al. “The Evolution of Eusociality.” Nature, vol. 466, no. 7310, Aug. 2010, pp. 1057–1062, https://doi.org/10.1038/nature09205

Parker, Joel D. “A Major Evolutionary Transition to More than Two Sexes?” Trends in Ecology & Evolution, vol. 19, no. 2, Feb. 2004, pp. 83–86, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2003.10.001.

Plowes, Nicola. “An Introduction to Eusociality | Learn Science at Scitable.” https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/an-introduction-to-eusociality-15788128/

Thorne, Barbara L. “Evolution of Eusociality in Termites.” Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, vol. 28, 1997, pp. 27–54, https://www.jstor.org/stable/2952485