The queen differs in terms of her general structure and appearance. For example, although the workers are female like the queen, their ovaries are not developed-in other words, all worker bees are sterile. The queen's head and thorax are little larger than those of the workers. And unlike the worker bees, the queen's mandible is not suited to making wax cells. The queen bee's hind legs also lack the workers' hard hairs which fringe the pollen baskets. Most important of all, although the queen hatches from exactly the same sort of egg as the workers, she lives for from 4 to 5 years (except for those emerging in winter, who live for a few months), rather than just 5 to 6 weeks.

These are just a few of the general differences between the queen and the workers, which are set out in greater detail on the next page.

From the eggs laid by the queen, different types of bee emerge, depending on the modes of fertilization and feeding.

 

Özellikler Worker Queen Drone Sensory Number of facets of compound eyes 4000-6900 3000-4000 7000-8600 Optic lobe of brain Medium Small Large Number of antennal plate organs 3000 1600 30000 Relative ratio of antennal surface 2 1 3 Glandular Hypopharyngeal Present Absent Absent Mandibular Large Very large Small Head salivary (labial) Large Large Absent Wax glands Present Absent Absent Nasonov (concerned with direction finding) Present Absent Absent Dufour (concerned with defense) Reduced Large Absent Koshevnikov (scent-secreting gland) Reduced or absent Present Absent Reproductive and sting Ovary or testis Number of ovarioles Reduced ovaries 2 to 12 Enlarged ovaries 150 to 180 Testis Spermatheca Not developed Large None Sting barbs Strong Minute No sting Sting plates Loosely attached Strongly attached None Mouthpart Mandibles Slender Robust Small Mandibular groove Present Absent Absent Proboscis Long Short Short Leg and wing Pollen press and comb Present Absent Absent Pollen basket Present Absent Absent Wing sensilla Medium Fewest Most Reference: Mark L. Winston, The Biology of the Honey Bee, p. 40

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