Why bees cannibalism?

Bees can be evil relatives. Queen bees eat eggs of their children, worker bees also eat with their eggs. This activity can be frightening to humans, but it makes the family more prosperous.

Even though honeybees are not able to mate, females still lay unfertilized eggs and if there is a chance they will develop into males. This is similar to wasps and ants. But many of these eggs do not survive. Each egg eaten is intended to reduce the number of genetic competitors.

Worker bees often eat their cousins' eggs when the mother bee mates with many different males. In these species, most worker bees are different siblings, and some are closer to their brothers (son of a queen bee) than her (another worker's son). At that time, other mother-in-law children showed no mercy when they re-nourished their grandchildren, to eliminate strangers who appeared in the collective.

In species with moths, the son of worker bees are cared 100 times less than the one with only one father. The results also supported William Hamilton's theory in 1964 whereby distant relatives always treated each other bitterly.

(Photo: aol.com)

MT