Question

The lifespan of worker honey bee is of
A) 30 days
B) 15 days
C) 45 days
D) 10 days

Answer 1

Hint: Honey bee is a flying insect belonging to genus Apis. Honey bees are good pollinating agents. Honeybee produces valuable honey. The wax obtained from the bee hive is used in cosmetics.

Complete Answer:
Honey bees live in colonies. In the colonies, three types of honey bees are found.
1) Queen bee- The colony contains only one queen bee which is female. The queen lays eggs. She chooses to fertilise the egg. The larvae fed solely on royal jelly forms queens. Queens can live several years.
2) Drone bees or males -The unfertilised eggs develop into drones which are haploid.
3) Female worker bees- Developed from the fertilised egg. They produce royal jelly on which the Larvae feed. They are also called nurse bees.
- They have royal jelly producing glands which help in making the honeycomb. There are around 60000 worker bees in a single colony. They do various tasks like feed brood, receive nectar, clean hive, guarding.
- The worker bees work without pause in their lifetime. The lifetime of worker bees is around 45 day.

Thus the correct answer is (C) Worker female bees can live up to 45 days.

Note: The worker bees are sterile but can develop ovaries in the absence of a queen. During the first few weeks of its life they live in the hive. During the last few weeks of its life they collect food, gather pollen or nectar.