Honeybees mating system and the functionality

Abstract

Eusocial hymenopteran insects including bees and ants consist of a kin group centered on a queen, which are known as colony. Their society, which is based on kin, is extremely advanced, and high productivity is achieved by not only the division of labor such as foraging and brood care, but also role of reproduction between individuals. The evolution of society and mechanism backgrounds maintaining it are closely related to their mating system, which influences their kinship within colony that promote the incentive for cooperation between individuals, and likelihood of inbreeding in relation to the colonies’survivorship. Honeybee (Apis mellifera) is well known as eusocial insects, and numerous knowledges for their mating have accumulated. This article reviews the mating behavior and system of honeybees, and also some problems on reproduction and the functionality for avoiding them.