Queen bees survive 40-times longer than workers
April 25th, 2011 - 3:31 pm ICT by ANILondon, Apr 25 (ANI): A new study has found that queen bees live 40 times longer than their workers - a royal difference that is owed entirely to a miraculous nutrient in the milky liquid secreted by their glands.
Their eating habits mean they become almost twice the size and more than double the weight of other female bees, despite having no genetic advantage, reports the Daily Mail.
The active ingredient of royal jelly, the chemical brew produced from pollen and secreted from glands on the top of young nurse bees’ heads, also helps them become 42 percent larger and weigh 60 percent more than the rest.
Queen bees live exclusively on the protein, royalactin, which triggers molecules that are responsible for their increased body size and faster development.
Amazingly, queen bees live seven years as compared to the seven-week lifespan of workers. They are fertilized once, and from that moment on can lay as many as three thousand eggs a day during the season with each brood equal to two and a half times her own body weight.
“The association between royal jelly and caste formation has been known for more than 100 years, but the identity of the component in royal jelly and queen development has been elusive,” said Masaki Kamakura, of Toyama Prefectural University, Japan.
The study is published in the journal Nature. (ANI)
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Tags: 100 years, active ingredient, brood, caste, daily mail, eating habits, faster development, female bees, genetic advantage, glands, half times, journal nature, kamakura, lifespan, masaki, nurse bees, queen bees, royal jelly, toyama prefectural university, university japan