Why Do Male Bees Die After Mating?

without needles, Male bees, which cannot fulfill the duties of worker bees and exist only to mate with the queen bee, actually have a tragic fate when it comes to their role in reproduction.

Behind this fatal outcome Why is it in their biology? lies.

Male bees (drones) make up only a small part of the bee colony.

Drones, the only type of drones that the queen bee mates with, have a vital role in ensuring genetic diversity and maintaining the health of the colony. His life is rather short and single-minded. They are born in spring and summer, and their main task is only to create a new mating with the queen bee.

Mating takes place in the air and is quite dramatic.

Drones and queen bees Mating time is less than 5 seconds. It is usually completed within 1-2 seconds. This mating, which takes place in the middle of the flight, 10-40 m above the ground, resembles a hunting return in which the drones follow the queen and try to merge with her in the air.

The successfully mating drone is extremely sensitive while transferring its genetic material. a significant physical change also lives.

The main reason behind the death of drones is their reproductive anatomy.

When a male bee mates, he actually performs his final act. Drone, connecting to the queen and uses the contraction of his abdominal muscles to invert his endophallus and insert it firmly into the queen’s reproductive tract.

This intense process ends with the drone’s explosive ejaculation, causing the tip of its endophallus to explode. to break inside the queen why is this happening. This is a serious injury, rupture of the abdomen and the real reason why it dies shortly after mating.

There is also combat and tactics for the queen bee.

Let’s also say that there is serious competition during the mating phase. So drones are competing with each other to die. Bees forming a drone ball around the queen using their jaws and legs they are fighting. The strongest are those who manage to mate.

Additionally, male bees also employ tactics for gene transfer. With their semen poisonous to the queen’s eyes They’re trying to blind the queen. Temporary blindness can prevent the queen bee from flying further for mating. It may also increase the chance that the blinding drone’s genes will prevail.

From the perspective of natural selection, it seems quite cruel, but it actually has a purpose.

The death of drones ensures that genetic material is passed on only by the strongest and most adaptable. Additionally, outside the mating season, the colony fewer drones to feed, It also allows the colony to use its resources more efficiently.

Our tears are pitt: the sacrifice of a bee

So the lives of these small but important creatures contain one of nature’s most interesting secrets: to mate once and then die. The short life of male bees provides an example of great sacrifice for the health and continuity of the colony.

With the death of drones, we see once again how complex and surprising nature is.

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