ABSTRACT
Bees have an interesting tale to tell us, because of the difference between workers and queens. Queen bees are genetically the same as worker bees. When a new hive is begun, the nurse bees will select-arbitrarily as far as we can tell-one larva to be fed on “royal jelly”. The combination of nutrients in royal jelly triggers a program in the developing bee that causes her to grow not into a worker, but a queen bee instead, with overdeveloped gonads that give her a whole new shape. The queen makes one flight at the beginning of her career, during which time she might mate with a dozen different drones and store their sperm inside her for many years to come.
