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Social insect quiz
Test your social insect knowledge with our quick-fire questions
Are worker ants male or female?
How many males does a honeybee queen mate with?
What is a 'spermatheca'?
In Melipona stingless bees, many more queens are produced than the colony needs - and then they are executed by the workers!
Why?
In ants, bees, and wasps, unfertilised eggs develop as males! Fertilised eggs develop as females. This famous phenomenon (known as 'haplodiploidy') has huge implications for social evolution. But who first discovered it and how?
In an ambitious experiment, biologists temporarily eliminated termites from an area of tropical rainforest in Borneo.
What happened to the rainforest?
Charles Darwin's neighbour, Sir John Lubbock, had a pet wasp. What species was it and where is it now?
What is the fastest ant in the world... and why is it so speedy?
To find out more about the social insects, read our introductions, survey the latest research in our journal Insectes Sociaux, and explore interviews with social insect researchers at the Insectes Sociaux blog.
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