How do queens and workers influence queen replacement in honey bee colonies?
When a queen honeybee (Apis mellifera) dies, the workers rear a number of potential replacements (virgin queens), which are then eliminated in conflicts with one another until only one remains; this survivor becomes the colony’s new laying queen. The factors determining the outcome of these contests are poorly understood, although overt fighting between virgin queens undoubtedly plays a major part. An individual virgin queen’s fighting success may depend on a number of attributes, including her size and weight, pheromonal signals, and use of ‘piping signals’ (characteristics sounds made by a queen that could act as an advertisement of fighting ability and suppress the emergence of rivals). Virgin queens are also at an advantage if they emerge earlier, since they have the opportunity to eliminate younger rivals that are still developing (Scheinder et al 2001). Nepotism and the role of the workers Mortal contests between rivals fighting for the right to reproduce are common in nature. Wh
