巴西研究人员发现，蜂王的权力也可能会失控，一些工蜂通过繁殖来延长自己的生命欺骗蜂王。
一项对巴西蜜蜂的研究显示，有些雄蜂是不是蜂王的儿子，而是工蜂的儿子。蜂群通常有约1500只工蜂，由一只蜂王统治。该研究发表在《分子生态学》（Molecular Ecology）杂志上，研究探究了45个蜂群的近600只雄蜂，研究它们的基因以查明它们的身世。结果显示，23%的雄蜂不是蜂王的后代，而是工蜂的后代。工蜂通常不能交配，但能产下非受精卵，这些卵子可以发育成雄蜂。为了确保自己的统治地位，蜂王经常会吃掉工蜂产下的卵子。
工蜂繁殖唯一的好处是这样做它们的寿命可以延长3倍，和蜂后的寿命差不多一样长。这是因为繁殖的工蜂劳作少，不再执行危险的任务，如觅食。该研究的联合作者丹尼斯·埃维斯表示，该研究证明工蜂为自己的利益生产下一代劳力的方式。（生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推荐原始出处：
Molecular Ecology (2009) doi: 10.1111/j.1365-294X.2009.04323.x
The queen is dead-Long live the workers: intraspecific parasitism by workers in the stingless bee Melipona scutellaris
D. A. ALVES,* V. L. IMPERATRIZ-FONSECA,* T. M. FRANCOY,?P. S. SANTOS-FILHO,*
P. NOGUEIRA-NETO,* J . BILLEN and T. WENSELEERS
*Bee Laboratory, Bioscience Institute, University of Sao Paulo, Rua do Matao Trav. 14, 321, 05508-900 Sao Paulo, Brazil,
School of Arts, Sciences and Humanities, University of Sao Paulo, Rua Arlindo Beotio 1000, 03828-000 Sao Paulo, Brazil,
Laboratory of Entomology, Zoological Institute, Catholic University of Leuven, Naamsestraat 59, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium
Insect societies are well known for their high degree of cooperation, but their colonies can potentially be exploited by reproductive workers who lay unfertilized, male eggs,rather than work for the good of the colony. Recently, it has also been discovered that workers in bumblebees and Asian honeybees can succeed in entering and parasitizing unrelated colonies to produce their own male offspring. The aim of this study was to investigate whether such intraspecific worker parasitism might also occur in stingless bees, another group of highly social bees. Based on a large-scale genetic study of the species Melipona scutellaris, and the genotyping of nearly 600 males from 45 colonies, we show that 20% of all males are workers’ sons, but that around 80% of these had genotypes that were incompatible with them being the sons of workers of the resident queen. By tracking colonies over multiple generations, we show that these males were not produced by drifted workers, but rather by workers that were the offspring of a previous, superseded queen. This means that uniquely, workers reproductively parasitize the next-generation workforce. Our results are surprising given that most colonies were sampled many months after the previous queen had died and that workers normally only have a life expectancy of 30 days. It also implies that reproductive workers greatly outlive all other workers. We explain our results in the context of kin selection theory, and the fact that it pays workers more from exploiting the colony if costs are carried by less related individuals.
