Nuptial Flight in Honey Bees

First of all, let's know everything about the honey bee. The nest of honey bees is known as a beehive. The hive consists of 32-60 thousand individuals, showing a highly organized division of labour in the colony. Bees are polymorphic, consisting of three types of individuals (Castes) viz, Queen (female), Drone (male) and Worker (female).

Comparison  Between Worker, Drone and Queen

Queen is the largest among the whole of the population in the hive and generally one per hive. If more than one is present, then as to know the capability to be one, the aspiring Queens fight with each other till only one is left so as to choose the strongest one. It is diploid and a fertile female with strong legs, walking on the comb. It feeds on Royal Jelly. A female will grow into a queen only if it is fed with royal jelly otherwise will be a future worker bee only. Sting is curved and modified as egg laying organ called ovipositor. Lays both fertilized and unfertilized eggs (1500-200/day). Fertilized eggs develop into females and unfertilized into drones (haploid).

Drone is smaller than the queen, larger than workers and 200-300 per hive. These are haploid fertile males developed by parthenogenesis called King of the colony. They live in drone cell. Their main function is to fertilize the Queen. Drones die immediately after copulation (fertilizing Queen). Otherwise, their life span is 57 days.

Worker bees are the smallest in the hive but majority in number. These are diploid sterile (incapable of reproducing) females which live in worker cells. If the fertilized egg is fed with royal jelly, it will grow up into a queen otherwise into a worker bee. When workers visit a flower for its nectar, pollen grains adhere to the branched hairs on the body. Pollen basket or corbicula is present on hind legs. There is a sting with poison sac at the tip of the abdomen. Their functions are to collect honey, look after young-ones, to clean comb, to defend the hive, and to maintain the temperature of the hive. Depending on the work they do, they are also known as Nursery bees, Builders, Repairers, Cleaners and Fanners. Their life span is 4-5 months.

As to copulate, these bees engage in nuptial flight.

Before the flight - 

As to copulate, Virgin Queen and drones take part in nuptial flight. Young Queen and males wait in their parent colony until conditions are favourable for the nuptial flight. The fight requires a clear weather as rain is disruptive. Many colonies of same species often synchronize their flights as to avoid inbreeding and the actual take off of parent colony is synchronized as to overwhelm the predator.

During flight - 

Most importantly, the virgin queens and males first scatter to ensure outcrossing. The queen then releases pheromones to attract males. However, the queens often try to escape the drones, allowing only the fastest and the fittest males to mate. A male drone will mount the queen and insert his endophallus(structure playing a major role in copulation), ejaculating semen. After ejaculation, the drone goes away from the queen, though his endophallus is ripped from his body in the process of pulling away, remaining attached to the newly fertilized queen. The next male honey bee to mate with the queen will remove the previous endophallus and eventually will lose its own after copulation.

After flight - 

After mating, a drone dies quickly and his abdomen rips open when his endophallus is removed. Even the drones that survive the mating are not allowed back into their hives as their sole function is served. Virgin queens attend nuptial flight once and mate with several drones. All the sperms are stored in queens body and lay eggs (fertilized as well as unfertilized) throughout her lifetime. The female developed from fertilized egg turns into a queen if fed royal jelly.

And the process continues.