Some ants have a rather peculiar type of parasite that "impoersonates" the queen. Quoting from "The Extended Phenotype" by Richard Dawkins: " The drug analogy is especially apt for insect 'cuckoos' that use chemical means to coerce their hosts into acts that are profoundly damaging to their own inclusive fitness. Several species of ant have no workers of their own. The queens invade nests of other species, dispose of the host queen, and use the host workers to bring up their own reproductive young. The method of disposing of the host queen varies. In some species ... the parasite queen rides about on the back of the host queen and then, in Wilson's (1971) delightful description, 'begins the one act for which she is uniquely specialized: slowly cutting off the head of her victim'. Monomorium santschii achieves the same result by more subtle means. The host workers have weapons wielded by strong muscles, and nerves attached to the muscles; why should the parasite queen exert her own jaws if she can subvert the nervous system controlling the numerous jaws of the host workers? It does not seem to be known how she achieves it, but she does; the host workers kill their own mother and adopt the usurper. ... Let me stress again what a feat of mind-control the Monomorium santschii queen achieves. To a sterile worker ant, her mother is a kind of genetic gold-mine. For a worker ant to kill her own mother is an act of genetic madness. " I was just curious if there were any hive parasites that attack the queen bee and then use the workers by impersonating the queen? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- The promotion of politics exterminates apolitical genes in the population. The promotion of frontiers gives apolitical genes a route to survival. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------