I would be grateful for any criticisms of the following which I've drafted
for some men interested in gender.
My hope is that humans confused about human gender may gain some clarity on
the subject by the indirect route of understanding gender in bees.  I am
hoping this summary will give approximately 'first things first' facts.

R


 I would like to clarify the 3 genders of that marvellous species the honey
bee.
Some unfortunately established figures of speech give wrong ideas about them.
        The male, commonly called 'drone' for its louder flying noise, has
been very little studied, with the result that we know very little about
what it does.  The drone develops from an unfertilised egg and therefore is
haploid (half the chromosome number of the worker bee).  It is commonly
depicted as a bludger, and indeed the word 'drone' has long meant this,
because all we know of its functions is that it mates with a queen on the
wing (and shortly dies).  Drones cover areas of hundreds of square miles,
nomads between hives.  What they do in the hives is not known.  Drones have
no sting.  They do not gather nectar, or anything for the queen or anyone
else.  The picture that they are bludgers is based on lack of knowledge.
(Similarly,the bulk of DNA in typical cells has no KNOWN function, on which
ridiculous basis it is routinely called 'junk'.)
        The nectar-gathering is entirely done by the immature females
commonly called workers.  Some workers instead gather water, or pollen, or
gum from certain tree buds to make the marvellous antiseptic glue called
propolis.
        The queen is a mature female, laying a thousand or more eggs daily
in spring & summer.  She is obviously bigger than a worker.  The large
differences are due to feeding an ordinary diploid grub more royal jelly
(secreted by young workers before they fly).  She is entirely dependent on
the workers and is in no useful sense a dictator.
        This species is the second-best studied animal.  That its males
have been so very little studied is one of the many lines of evidence that
science has not been male-chauvinist.

-
Robt Mann
consultant ecologist
P O Box 28878   Remuera, Auckland 1005, New Zealand
                (9) 524 2949