When it comes to bee mating, familiar friends know that this is a very cruel process, but there are many theories about why specific bees form this cruel mating method. We all know that after the bee is mated, the male bee will die soon, and strictly speaking, the queen bee kills the male bee, so what is the queen's intention in doing this?
This question bee tribe xiaobian has always been very curious, although found some answers, but always feel that these answers are too far-fetched, recently inadvertently saw the process of wasp mating, after the relevant data arguments, on why the queen bee will kill the male bee after mating has a new view, today to share with you, if you like my content, don't forget to point a point of attention.
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="4" > the process of bee mating</h1>
Here we first briefly introduce the process of bee mating. When the bees are mating, in fact, the whole process is carried out on the queen bee and the male bees, whether the worker bees are involved in this process, the controversy is relatively large, here we will not discuss.
In the bee colony, the development time of the male bee is longer than the development time of the queen, so in a bee colony, it is generally the queen who has the male bee first, but this does not mean that the bees will be inbreeding, but it is a common phenomenon in a cycle, and the sexually mature male bee flies to the place where the queen may appear after eating and drinking enough every day to fly to the place where the queen may appear.
When the virgin queen appears, the virgin queen will release a substance with a pungent odor, we call this substance extragexual hormone, the male bee attracted by this substance, began to chase the queen, but the number of male bees chased in the process will be more and more, and finally only a few male bees catch up with the queen, a large number of male bees in the process of exhaustion in the process of chasing.
The male bee that catches up with the queen bee will mate with the queen one by one, but there is a very special place here, that is, the queen is not mating with a male bee alone, but with multiple male bees, every time the male bee and the queen mate is completed, the queen will be stuck in the genitals of the male bee through the contraction of the tail, the male bee will lie back and break his genitals, along with some of the internal organs are pulled out to stay in the tail of the queen, the next male bee will pull out the internal organs of the previous male bee when mating, and then mate with the queen bee. Until the end of mating with the last male bee.
This is the mating process of bees, and many researchers believe that the queen bee is trying to block the male bee's sperm, but if we look at the problem in combination with the mating of wasps, perhaps the reason is more than that.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="29" > the mating pattern of wasps</h1>
Although the mating method of the wasp is similar to that of the bee, but the process of chasing is not as spectacular as the bee, according to the relevant information, the mating of the wasp will not be like the bee, a queen bee and multiple male bees mate, in the mating of the wasp, there is rarely a queen bee mating with more than two male bees, and the male bees after mating are completed will not die soon, there is no injury.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="30" > a special phenomenon that occurs after wasps mate</h1>
According to the above introduction, we all know that the male bee is almost dead after falling to the ground due to the internal organs after mating, and the mating of the wasp, although it is chased in the air, but it falls to the ground to mate, we can also see the activity of the male bee after mating.
After the male wasp of the wasp wasp wasg wasg completed mating, the researchers found an interesting phenomenon, that is, the male wasp that the mating was completed will be "mated" by other male bees, and the researchers extracted the tail material of the male wasp after mating, which will also attract other male bees to "mate".
This illustrates the problem that male bees that have completed mating have either attracted substances on the queen's body that can attract other male bees, or male bees that have completed mating have produced substances that can attract other male bees.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="31" > the difference between a queen bee and a queen wasp storing sperm</h1>
Friends who have read the small article of the bee tribe know that the reason why the queen bee mates with multiple male bees when mating is mainly to store sufficient sperm, because once the queen bee is mated, it will not mate after spawning, but use the sperm stored in the early stage to provide lifelong use.
Although it is said that after the completion of wasp mating, as long as the eggs are started, it will not be re-mated, but in fact, the queen wasp and the queen bee are very different, in general, the queen bee life expectancy of the wasp is up to one year, and under normal circumstances, the life span of the queen bee is 3 to 5 years, and the long can even reach 8 years, which is the difference between the queen wasp and the queen bee.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="32" >Why does a queen bee kill a male after mating? </h1>
Now let's take a look at the question of why the queen bee kills the male bee after mating. From the above process of wasp mating, it is not difficult to find that if the queen bee jams the male bee genitalia in order to block sperm, then the queen wasp should also have such behavior when mating is completed, although there is a difference between the wasp and the bee, but in the mating problem, it is roughly the same, and the structure is also similar, which shows that the purpose of clipping the male bee genitals has another reason, so can we find other reasons? The small editor of the bee tribe believes that there are mainly the following reasons.
(1) Store more sperm: As said in the past, the reason why the queen bee wants to clip off the male bee genitalia is to prevent sperm outflow, which is actually justified here, although bee mating and wasp mating are similar, but the mating of bees is always in the air, and the mating of wasps is only in the air, so sperm outflow may occur after the queen bee mating is completed, which is also justified, so this reason can not be said without.
(2) Attract more male bees to mate: Through the above introduction, we can find that the mating of bees with a male wasp is not enough, then the queen needs to continue to attract the next male bee after completing the first mating, and the male bee genitalia clipped by the queen bee has the effect of attracting the male bee to chase the male bee.
Regarding the male wasp's genitals clipped off, in some studies it has been determined that there is some kind of substance that attracts the male bee, which is equivalent to the fact that after the first male bee has completed mating, the male bee behind sees the internal organs of the first male bee remaining in the tail of the queen bee instead of becoming frightened, but becoming crazy, mainly because the male bee genitals after mating have substances that attract other male bees, which will make the male bees behind them want to mate with the queen bee out of control.
Since the queen bee's purpose is to attract more male bees to mate with it, if the male bee genitalia that has been mated is not cut off, the male bee chasing after the queen may change its trajectory to chase the falling male bee, which has two things that attract the chasing male bee, the same is the extrageminal hormone released by the queen bee, and the same is the genitals of the male wasp that has completed mating.
It can be said that the queen bee's extrasexual hormones are equivalent to the fragrance emitted by women, and the color on the genitals of the male bee after mating is completed, if the male bee who has gone crazy is given a shot of stimulant, this is why the male bee behind obviously sees the cruel mating process of the male bee in front and desperately completes the mating.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="33" > the queen bee does not kill the male bee whose fate is worse than that of the male bee that has completed mating</h1>
From the perspective of the division of labor of bees, as long as the queen bee mating is completed, the mission of the male bee in the bee colony has been completed, if the male bee stays, it will only increase the burden on the bee colony, because the male bee will not collect honey and work, in addition to mating can not do anything, so the death of the male bee after mating can reduce the burden in the bee colony.
From the above introduction, it is not difficult to find that if the queen bee does not kill the male bee after mating, then other male bees may change their route to chase the male bee that has completed mating, so that the queen cannot obtain sufficient sperm, and for the male bee that has completed mating, although it is not killed by the queen bee, it will also die under the "mating" of the male bee that has lost control, you say?