Q. Life span of a worker bee is

 1961  206 AIPMTAIPMT 1999Strategies for Enhancement in Food Production Report Error

Solution:

A highly organised division of labour is found in the colony of honey bees. A good and well developed colony of bees had 40 to 50 thousand individuals consisting of 3 castes viz., queen, drone and worker. Although the workers are the smallest of the three castes but they function as the main spring of the complicated machinery like honey bee colony. It takes 21 days in the development from the egg to the adult and the total life span of a worker is about 6 weeks. The workers are atrophid female which sacrifice themselves for the well-being of the colony. The total indoor and outdoor duties of the colony are performed by the workers only. Apis dorsata is the largest honey bee and A. indica is slightly smaller than it. Bees wax is a by product of honey bee and drone of honey bee is haploid in nature.