Translations:Adventist Youth Honors Answer Book/Nature/Insects - Advanced/39/en

Kings and Queens: A female that has flown, mated, and is producing eggs, is called a "queen". Similarly, a male that has flown, mated, and remains in proximity to a queen, is termed a "King". These anthropocentric terms have caused great misunderstanding of colony dynamics. Research using genetic techniques to determine relatedness of colony members is showing that colonies are not headed by a single monogamous royal pair. Multiple pairs of kings and queens within a colony are not uncommon. In some families (Rhinotermitidae and Termitidae, and possibly others) sperm competition does not seem to occur, suggesting that only one male (king) generally mates within the colony.
Workers: Worker termites undertake the labors of foraging, food storage, brood, nest maintenance, and some of the defense effort in certain species. Workers are the main caste in the colony for the digestion of cellulose in food and are the most likely to be found in infested wood.
Soldiers: The soldier caste has anatomical and behavioral specializations, providing strength and armor which are primarily useful against ant attack. The proportion of soldiers within a colony varies both within and among species. Many soldiers have jaws so enlarged that they cannot feed themselves, but instead, like juveniles, are fed by workers.

Queen: A honey bee colony has only one queen, and she is the one that lays all the eggs. If the queen dies or becomes sick, the workers can make a new queen by feeding the larvae royal jelly. As these larvae mature, they attain the ability to lay eggs. They will fight to the death until only one bee remains as the new queen. A fertile queen is able to lay fertilized or unfertilized eggs. The unfertilized eggs develop into drones and the fertilized eggs develop into either workers or virgin queens.
Drones: Drones are male bees. They have no stingers, and their only job is to mate with the queen. Drones do not even feed themselves, but rely on the workers to feed them. The colony does not need drones when the queen is not laying eggs, and needs to conserve its resources to survive the winter. Therefore, drones are not allowed to live in the hive in winter - they are ejected and die. In the spring when the queen lays eggs, they will, being unfertilized, develop into drones.
Workers: The vast majority of honey bees are workers, which are the sterile females. They have many responsibilities throughout their lives:

Age	Task
1-2 days	Clean the brood cells
3-5 days	Feed the worker larvae beebread made of pollen and honey.
6-11 days	Feed royal jelly to the queen larva and bee milk, which is just another term for royal jelly, to the 1-3 day old drone and worker larvae.
11-17 days	Build cells from wax, repair old cells, and store nectar and pollen brought in by other workers. Early in the worker's career she will exude wax from the space between several of her abdominal segments. Four sets of wax glands, situated inside the last four ventral segments of the abdomen, produce wax for comb construction.
18-21 days	Soldier bees hang around near the entrance and attack invaders. Entrance guard bees inspect incoming bees to ensure that they are bringing in food and have the correct hive odor. Other bees will be rejected or attacked with soldier bees. Outer guards may take short flights around the outside of the hive in response to disturbances.
22-42 days	The forager and scout bees travel (up to 1.5 miles) to a nectar source, pollen source or to collect propolis.