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>The queen almost certainly has to use her stinger when she exits her cocoon: to kill ther other queens I think this is one of the more interesting differences

by treis 2y ago

>The queen almost certainly has to use her stinger when she exits her cocoon: to kill ther other queens I think this is one of the more interesting differences. Plenty of species operate in groups. But its usually a dominant male with a harem. Bees and the like are unusual in that it's a dominant female. I think it's related to the ease of reproduction. The females put relatively little into their off spring compared to a lion or even birds. It lets them to be essentially autonomous in reproduction which allows them to create offspring that are more like limbs.

ajuc 2y ago
There's 13 000 species of ants and 6000 species of mammals, not to count all the other insects. We are the unusual ones. BTW there are mammals that live in insect-like groups - for example https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naked_mole-rat#Roles https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naked_mole-rat#Roles
cryptonector 2y ago
There are bees that are monogamous, where the female and the male act a lot more like birds as far as mating and young rearing goes, and there are eusocial bees that where the female absolutely dominates. Honeybees keep very few males (drones) around, and in the Fall they push them out of the hive and let them die of exposure to the elements. Honeybee workers work themselves to death. The queen is their slave. It's a pretty crappy life, but they make wonderful honey, and they collect wonderful propolis.
- zamfi 2y ago
  > It's a pretty crappy life By human standards, sure. Weird take I know, but since only one female bee in the hive passes along her genes (which are shared with the other bees), it's a very different incentive structure.
- ChrisMarshallNY 2y ago
  From what I can tell, the entire hive is “the” organism, and individual bees are like cells in the body. There was an episode of Cosmos, where Neil deGrasse Tyson described bees as the other of two major intelligences on Earth, and suggested their structure as a model for alien visitors[0]. If we judged ourselves by the cells in our body, we’d probably conclude that humans aren’t “happy.” White blood cells basically run suicide missions against intruders, so they are sort of like swarming worker bees. [0] https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ubE9hjrsHmI https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ubE9hjrsHmI

by treis 2y ago

ajuc 2y ago

There's 13 000 species of ants and 6000 species of mammals, not to count all the other insects. We are the unusual ones. BTW there are mammals that live in insect-like groups - for example https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naked_mole-rat#Roles https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naked_mole-rat#Roles

cryptonector 2y ago

There are bees that are monogamous, where the female and the male act a lot more like birds as far as mating and young rearing goes, and there are eusocial bees that where the female absolutely dominates. Honeybees keep very few males (drones) around, and in the Fall they push them out of the hive and let them die of exposure to the elements. Honeybee workers work themselves to death. The queen is their slave. It's a pretty crappy life, but they make wonderful honey, and they collect wonderful propolis.

zamfi 2y ago
> It's a pretty crappy life By human standards, sure. Weird take I know, but since only one female bee in the hive passes along her genes (which are shared with the other bees), it's a very different incentive structure.
ChrisMarshallNY 2y ago
From what I can tell, the entire hive is “the” organism, and individual bees are like cells in the body. There was an episode of Cosmos, where Neil deGrasse Tyson described bees as the other of two major intelligences on Earth, and suggested their structure as a model for alien visitors[0]. If we judged ourselves by the cells in our body, we’d probably conclude that humans aren’t “happy.” White blood cells basically run suicide missions against intruders, so they are sort of like swarming worker bees. [0] https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ubE9hjrsHmI https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ubE9hjrsHmI