Laymen question on hive/colony creation

[Dezene Huber]

Workers and drones cannot set up a new hive, at least not in the truly
eusocial insects such as ants, bees, wasps, and termites.  Workers are, for
the most part, sterile (they can produce male eggs, though, in some cases)
and drones exist only to inseminate a female.

New colonies are set up, normally, as follows:

The workers in an established colony begin to treat some female eggs,
produced by the queen, specially.  In particular, they may feed the larvae
that hatch from those eggs a special diet.  Those females then, instead of
developing into (mostly) nonreproductive workers, develop into new queens.

The new queens then can do one of several things.

First, one new queen may fight it out with the old queen and take over the
colony.

Second, in the case of honeybees and other swarmers, if the colony is too
large, half of the workers may attach themselves to the new queen and leave
the hive with her to set up a new colony elsewhere.  The other portion of
the workers stays back in the old haunts with the old queen.

Or third, all of the new queens and all of the drones (reproductive males)
that have been produced take to the air in a mating flight.  Have you seen
flying ants in the summer?  That's the result of new reproductives being
made and then leaving in one mass exodus.  During the mating flight the
females mate once, or multiple times.  Each male, alas, only gets one shot
at it (in the case of honeybees, the males genetalia actually explode into
the female, plugging her up for some time in order to reduce the number of
subsequent males that mate with her).

The females then seek a new place for a colony.  In the case of ants, the
mated female eats her wings and settles down.  The female then, generally,
produces a few fertilized eggs to make new workers.  She tends to these
eggs/larvae/pupae until they emerge as adults.  From that point forward, she
sits back and takes it easy, just producing eggs.

One point that is important in all of this is that male eggs only ever
produce male reproductives.  And any female in the colony can produce such
eggs (although there are mechanisms that prevent most workers from producing
such eggs).  These eggs can be produced without the female being fertilized.

Fertilized eggs, on the other hand, develop into females.  Then, depending
on how they are treated after they hatch into larvae, they can become either
standard workers or reproductive potential-queens.

Hope that helps.


"Phil Olsen" <philgriz at pacbell.net> wrote in message
news:3be090c1.4904055 at news.sf.sbcglobal.net...
> I have a question that you may have the answer to  or maybe you can at
> least point me in the direction of someone who does.
>
> Say you have a hive of insects and a single worker or drone is take
> and placed in a new environment where it is the only one of its kind.
> Is it possible for that insect to reproduce and set up a new hive?
> I'm thinking more in terms of an insect that revolves around a queen
> (bees, ants, termites...you probably know more than I.)
>
> If not, how do new hives get created in new areas?  Does a queen have
> to do this?  If so how do queen's come to be in a hive where a queen
> already exists?
>
> I would appreciate your help in this matter, greatly.



 
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