page_title: Western honey bee
section_title: Individual bee life cycle
hierarchical_section_title: Western honey bee / Life cycle / Individual bee life cycle
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Bienenwaben der westlichen Honigbiene mit Eiern und Brut. Die seitlichen Wände der Zellen sind bis zum Boden der Zellen entfernt. Die Eier stehen schräg aufrecht auf dem Boden der Zellen. Die Larven oder Maden (hier Drohnen etwa 3-4 Tage nach dem Schlüpfen aus dem Ei) schwimmen in einem milchig-weißen Futtersaft. English: Honeycomb of honey bees with eggs and larvae. The walls of the cells have been removed. The larvae (drones) are about 3 or 4 days old. Français: Rayon de cire d'abeilles domestiques portant des œufs et des larves. Les parois des cellules ont été enlevées. Les larves (des faux-bourdons) sont âgées de 3 à 4 jours. Português: Favo de abelhas com ovos e larvas. As paredes das celas foram removidas. As larvas (zangões) têm entre três e quatro dias de idade. 中文: 蜜蜂的蜂巢，可见虫卵和幼虫。蜂巢的外壳已经去除，幼虫大约3-4天。
context_page_description: The western honey bee or European honey bee is the most common of the 7–12 species of honey bees worldwide. The genus name Apis is Latin for "bee", and mellifera is the Latin for "honey-bearing", referring to the species' production of honey.
  Like all honey bee species, the western honey bee is eusocial, creating colonies with a single fertile female, many normally non-reproductive females or "workers", and a small proportion of fertile males or "drones". Individual colonies can house tens of thousands of bees. Colony activities are organized by complex communication between individuals, through both pheromones and the dance language.
  The western honey bee was one of the first domesticated insects, and it is the primary species maintained by beekeepers to this day for both its honey production and pollination activities. With human assistance, the western honey bee now occupies every continent except Antarctica. Because of its wide cultivation, this species is the single most important pollinator for agriculture globally. Western honey bees are threatened by pests and diseases, especially the Varroa mite and colony collapse disorder.
context_section_description: Like other insects that undergo complete metamorphosis, the western honey bee has four distinct life stages: egg, larva, pupa and adult. The complex social structure of western honey bee hives means that all of these life stages occur simultaneously throughout much of the year. The queen deposits a single egg into each cell of a honeycomb prepared by worker bees. The egg hatches into a legless, eyeless larva fed by "nurse" bees (worker bees who maintain the interior of the colony). After about a week, the larva is sealed in its cell by the nurse bees and begins its pupal stage. After another week, it emerges as an adult bee. It is common for defined regions of the comb to be filled with young bees (also called "brood"), while others are filled with pollen and honey stores.
  Worker bees secrete the wax used to build the hive, clean, maintain and guard it, raise the young and forage for nectar and pollen; the nature of the worker's role varies with age. For the first 10 days of their lives, worker bees clean the hive and feed the larvae. After this, they begin building comb cells. On days 16 through 20, workers receive nectar and pollen from older workers and store it. After the 20th day, a worker leaves the hive and spends the remainder of its life as a forager. Although worker bees are usually infertile females, when some subspecies are stressed they may lay fertile eggs. Since workers are not fully sexually developed, they do not mate with drones and thus can only produce haploid (male) offspring.
  Queens and workers have a modified ovipositor called a stinger, with which they defend the hive. Unlike bees of any other genus and the queens of their own species, the stinger of worker western honey bees is barbed. Contrary to popular belief, a bee does not always die soon after stinging; this misconception is based on the fact that a bee will usually die after stinging a human or other mammal. The stinger and its venom sac, with musculature and a ganglion allowing them to continue delivering venom after they are detached, are designed to pull free of the body when they lodge. This apparatus (including barbs on the stinger) is thought to have evolved in response to predation by vertebrates, since the barbs do not function (and the stinger apparatus does not detach) unless the stinger is embedded in elastic material. The barbs do not always "catch", so a bee may occasionally pull its stinger free and fly off unharmed (or sting again).
  Although the average lifespan of a queen in most subspecies is three to five years, reports from the German honey bee subspecies (A. m. mellifera) previously used for beekeeping indicate that a queen can live up to eight years. Because a queen's store of sperm is depleted near the end of her life, she begins laying more unfertilized eggs; for this reason, beekeepers often replace queens every year or two.
  The lifespan of workers varies considerably over the year in regions with long winters. Workers born in spring and summer work hard, and live only a few weeks, but those born in autumn remain inside for several months as the colony clusters. On average during the year, about 1% of a colony's worker bees die naturally per day. Except for the queen, all of a colony's workers are replaced about every four months.
caption: Larvae (left) and eggs (right)
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