Question

Honeybees produce their young ones only by sexual reproduction. Inspite of this, in a colony of bees we find both haploid and diploid individuals. Name the haploid and diploid individuals in the colony and analyse the reasons behind their formation.

Answer 1

In the colony of bees, the Queen and workers are diploid while the males or drones are haploid. The drones are developed from unfertilized eggs. Development of an individual from unfertilized eggs is called parthenogenesis. While, all the fertilized eggs develop into females that form the worker population of the colony, of which only one is bred differently to become the queen.