Sex Determination in Honey Bee: In honeybees (or honey bees), sex is normally determined by the fertilization or non-fertilization of eggs, rather than the presence or absence of sex chromosomes. In honey bees, the male is haploid while the female is diploid. Haplodiploidy occurs in some insects like bees, ants and wasps. Male insects are haploid because they develop partheno-genetically from unfertilized eggs.

• An offspring formed from the union of a sperm and an egg develops into queen/worker.
• The unfertilized egg develops as a male (drone) by parthenogenesis.
• Males thus have half the number of chromosomes than female.
• Females have 32 chromosomes and male have 16 chromosomes.
• It is called as haplodiploid sex determination system and has its own importance such as male produce sperm by mitosis.

Mechanism of Sex Determination in Honey Bees

• Honeybees use a haplodiploid sex determination mechanism. Males develop from unfertilised eggs as haploids, whereas females develop from fertilised eggs as diploids. Sterile diploid female bee and fertile diploid female bee, in which former one will act as a worker and latter one as a queen.

• Johann Dzierzon, a Catholic priest, was the first to invent this method of sex determination in 1845.

• The fertilisation or non-fertilisation of the eggs, rather than the presence or lack of sex chromosomes, determines sex in honeybees.

• The male progeny of honeybees develops naturally from unfertilised eggs, which are haploid and have only one set of chromosomes.

• Queens and worker bees are male or female and are produced from fertilised honey bee eggs, which are diploid and have two sets of chromosomes.

• Number of chromosomes in honey bees: Diploid females have 16 pairs of chromosomes, or 32, whereas haploid males only have 16 single chromosomes.

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By Team Learning Mantras