HEREDITY IN THE HONEY-BEE 



P. W. Whiting 



Child Welfare Research Station, State University of Iowa 



IT IS now generally recognized 

 that inheritance in the honey-bee 

 is of a criss-cross type due to the 

 fact that males or drones arise from 

 unfertilized eggs and thus inherit 

 maternal characters only. Females, 

 both workers and queens, come from 

 fertilized eggs and thus show paternal 

 as well as maternal qualities. These 

 three castes are strikingly different 

 from each other both in structure and 

 in instincts. From measurements made 

 by V. Alten and published by Armbrus- 

 ter it appears that the "brain-index" 

 of workers is superior to that of the 

 queen and the latter again superior to 

 that of the drone. Degeneration of the 

 queen brain is correlated with degenera- 

 tion of instincts due to a "parasitic" 

 life upon the worker colony. Instincts 

 as well as brain of the drone are like- 

 wise far inferior to that of the workers. 



PROBLEMS OF HEREDITY 



In a recent book on bees ("A Book 

 about the Bee" by Herbert Mace) 

 occur the following remarks: 



"The curious problem, and one that 

 is not to be explained by any law that 

 we are cognisant of, is that the workers 

 with all their wonderful cell-building, 

 pollen-gathering, and honey-storing ap- 

 pliances and instincts, descend from 

 parents who have never done anything 

 of the kind, having neither the organs 

 nor the requisite amount of intelligence. 

 How is this complex instinct transmit- 

 ted?" 



"The drone is a male bee, having 

 neither the organs nor the intelligence 

 to perform the necessary functions of 

 existence apart from the colony. The 

 queen is more or less in like case. 

 Neither is able to find food for itself. 

 Neither has ever had anything to do 

 with the rearing of the young. Yet 

 the product of the two is, under ordi- 

 nary circumstances, an insect endowed 

 with special apparatus for carrying 



home honey and pollen in quantities 

 truly remarkable for the size of the 

 creature. Its tongue, honey sac, and 

 pollen baskets are developed in a meas- 

 ure that has no comparison with 

 those of its parents. In addition it pos- 

 sesses a much higher degree of intelli- 

 gence as calculated by brain area." 



"The female or queen bee, contains 

 within her own person the means of 

 reproducing bees, but not bees that 

 are in any way like herself. Her unas- 

 sisted progeny is of a kind entirely 

 different in its organic structure. In 

 this she differs from the aphides. The 

 offspring of a virgin aphis is like herself, 

 a female." 



"... drones have a mother, but 

 no father. How comes it then that 

 they possess the virtues, or perhaps we 

 should say vices, of a parent who has 

 taken no part in their production? 



"Of course it is true that the drones 

 which come from a certain queen are 

 generally pure, that is to say, the par- 

 ticular variety of bee, whether Black, 

 Italian, or Carniolan, which the queen 

 belongs to is perpetuated in the drone." 



"Skilled apiarists know well that 

 qualities, even to the minute shades of 

 difference are thus perpetuated. A 

 stock that is naturally vicious and 

 inclined to sting at every opportunity 

 can be cured of the propensity by 

 removing the queen and substituting 

 one from another and more gentle 

 colony. On the other hand if we have 

 a colony which is notable for its devo- 

 tion to work, for its capacity to extract 

 honey from specially inaccessible flow- 

 ers, or for the exceptional colour and 

 beauty of its wax, we take great pains 

 to rear future queens from that colony, 

 knowing that their offspring will as- 

 suredly possess the same qualities. And 

 yet, so far as we can trace back through 

 the ages, the queen has never per- 

 formed any of the duties so pre-eminent 

 in her offspring." 



