It is known that male bees die after mating and after they sting others. In the case of mating, he is sacrificing himself for a new generation. But does the male chosen by the queen for mating have the power to decline? If yes, then what becomes of him? In case of sting, he is doing it to protect from predators, but ultimately, it results in death. So why don't they just flee?
Male bees don't sting: the sting is a modified ovipositor, so it's physically impossible. As for the mating, it's the entire point of his existence & he's motivated by biological imperative, not conscious thought as we know it, so while he does have the power to decline (if you disturb them during the process, for example, the couple will split and both will fly off), it's not in his interest to do so
No, It is hight doubtful that Bees are aware of their mortality or consequences of matting or stinging. Drones in fact cannot sting, their sole purpose is to fertilize queens. Males that do not mate, do not pass on their genes so even if they did know that trait would not be selected for.
Male bees don't sting: the sting is a modified ovipositor, so it's physically impossible. As for the mating, it's the entire point of his existence & he's motivated by biological imperative, not conscious thought as we know it, so while he does have the power to decline (if you disturb them during the process, for example, the couple will split and both will fly off), it's not in his interest to do so
Thanks to Joshua and Richard to answer first.
Stings are modified reproductive tracts, thus, only non reproductive members of the colony (workers) are able to sting.
In general, consciousness about the own fate, and especially the fate of their genes, is something that few animals have (in principle, just people, but maybe others too). Survival instinct is logically favoured because, if not, animals don't survive. However, this instinct doesn't mean that there is any consciousness of the own survival. Plants also protect themselves and they are, undoubtedly, unconscious.
I have often wondered about consciousness in insects. Classical science believes that only humans are aware of death. Yet, they have a 'survival instinct'. How does this operate? An animal avoids damage to the body by avoiding the stimulus of pain. What is the stimulus for the 'survival instinct' if not death? Can we agree that mammals who see their own family members die, even have their graveyards (eg the elephants), are unaware of death? Is awareness of death really such an advanced notion? Or is it a notion we like to believe to justify our meat-eating tendencies? Vegetarian Hindus and Jains respect each conscious being, regardless of size. The 'worship of monkeys and elephants' means that they are capable of respecting other species, for they do not need to justify the slaughter of animals. To my mind, as Jorge says, the survival instinct is favoured because, if not, the animals don't survive. But to say that they are unaware of death is surely an assumption.
To what degree the male mantis or the male spider is aware that mating might or will result in his death is worth investigating. I like to compare stinging bees to the army, where the soldier knows he will very likely die, but is committed to defend the larger good and so sacrifices his life. In many cultures, death is not seen as an end, so one even has ritual suicides or suicide bombers. In western belief, death is seen as something final, so to be feared, since it signals the end of existence. I think the bees don't see death as final, so they don't fear it as much as some humans. Certainly, all mammals that nurture their young must be aware of death. Our bitch brought back the head of her puppy taken by a leopard. She was clearly sad when she brought it back, but then she and her children ate it up with relish.
http://books.google.cz/books/about/The_Selfish_Gene.html?id=WkHO9HI7koEC&redir_esc=y
HTH,
Peter.
Male honey bees do die after mating, but males in other bee species actually seldom die and can mate multiply (in B. terrestris more than ten times in the lab). The diversity of male reproductive strategies is actually a fascinating topic and it has been shaped by life-history traits. Mate selection is another one, just for the record queen honey bees mate with up to 20 males. It is thought that there is very little mate selection during mating flights in drone aggregation. Competition between mates in the Honey bee means that desisting is probably not an adaptive option, but this can very well be the case in other species. As for self-sacrifice and death, they are the results of selection processes such as inclusive fitness benefits and awareness does not really factor in these processes.
Perhaps, perhaps not!
How is fitness defined from a religion point of view, for instance including aspects related to reincarnation! Many people talk about problems without defining or knowing which scales of analysis or perception are involved.
Does consciousness contribute to the survival of drones? Probably no. So how natural selection would favour such a feature?
When people drive a car significantly exceeding recommended speed limits, and they have an accident, they did not think about the possible consequences of their acts for the future. They only think about the pleasure to drive fast and perhaps to impress others. It must be mentally exhausting to continuously think about the potential long-term consequences of each individual act.
How can processes of natural selection explain maladaptive or maladapted individual behaviour? This is when behaviour selected in the past (behaviour in the absence of cars) are suddenly confronted with new environments (behaviour with cars). This is also discussed in the framework of ecological traps.
I don't think bees evolved a mental state where they consciously know they will die after a behavioural decision. They are just confronted with the situation.
Mental state influenced by hormone-state (e.g. sexual drive) makes individual do surprising things....
Only female bees sting (and not even all those - the tribe Meliponini is commonly known as the stingless honey bees). Worker honey bees in the genus Apis die because they have a barbed stinger that remains behind with the venom sac. They essentially disembowel themselves when they sting. This is helpful because the venom sac continues to pump venom even after the bee has been swatted away. The worker honey bee is sterile and so none of her genes get into the next generation unless the colony survives and her queen reproduces. Natural selection favours protecting the colony (at all costs) over self-preservation.
Most bees and wasps do not have a barbed stinger and so they do not die after stinging. They can (and do) sting repeatedly.
Male bees usually don't die after mating, but the sex ratio is often quite different in other bees compared to honey bees. The number of male honey bees is far greater than the number of reproductive females. Competition is fierce and so if you can get your claws on a female you better make it count, because you are unlikely to get another chance.
We can't be sure if they know, but most likely they don't know I think.
Hello Habteab.
This is a wise answer. Researchers cannot read insect minds, so they are just speculating. Philosophy!
One might ask the same question for a monocarpic plant. It lives and grows, then in a burst of reproductive output, dies. Death following mating in the genus Apis (Hymenoptera:Apidae) is just a reproductive strategy as in monocarpic plants and pacific salmon that die after oviposition.
Across taxa, some individuals biologically live for a couple of seconds, others for more than 1000 years (e.g., trees). Life-histories differ a lot, even within, what we name, species.
Researchers could proof wether a neuronal function exists or not, Marcel, this is not philosophy, that's Science.
What we can guess, if anything, is if it makes sense that drones or worker bees know they fate after breeding or stinging. Why should natural selection favour the "knowledge" of an animal that is going to die? Obviously, the fact of dying prevent the possibility of transmiting the feature to the offspring. If they have already mate when death arrives ... why the fear or consciousness of dying should be favoured? In the case of workers, who don't mate, that's even most obvious. Do they feel pain? Probably yes, if it could improve their chances to survive a bit more and favour the success of the colony and the transmition of the genes. As far as I know, drones are monoic clones of their mother, females (queen and workers don't have a genetic difference, it's just about environment and food) are dioic. Any character, improving the transmition of "good" genes from the queen (and her clone monoic sons) would be perpetuated.
Whatever feature of a living being has been filtered and favoured by natural selection, sexual selection or some other mechanism. But, without a doubt, it must have an evolutive meaning, even if we don't understand it.
Fear or consciousness have a sense in animals like human beings, because they improve their chances to survive or to transmit their genes. It could be the case for many animals, even some insects, but, unless we can guess an evolutive sense to consciousness in drones, everything points to its lack in drones.
Neurobiologists can measure brain activity and relate it to internal or external environmental factors, but they do not have access to the details of what living beings think or see in their mind if they don't tell about it in human language. For instance, science uses simple measures of brain activity to study sleep patterns reflected in encephalograms or receptor responses. However, these measurements are insufficient to reveal which complex visual images, stories or senses are perceived during sleep. Most, if not all, humans claim dreams exist, but scientists cannot retrieve or replicate dream images to demonstrate their existence other than quantifying what dreamers tell. Scientists have to accept that they do not have access to everything.
They might use personal experiences as a reference how other organisms function, but this has been criticised by critical scientists...
We like give personality to other animals to easy our precision of life. A biological clock will drive all animal activity. So, non animal don't do its activity on wisdom.
Neurobiologists can measure brain activity and relate it to internal or external environmental factors, but they do not have access to the details of what living beings think or see in their mind if they don't tell about it in human language. For instance, science uses simple measures of brain activity to study sleep patterns reflected in encephalograms or receptor responses. However, these measurements are insufficient to reveal which complex visual images, stories or senses are perceived during sleep. Most, if not all, humans claim dreams exist, but scientists cannot retrieve or replicate dream images to demonstrate their existence other than quantifying what dreamers tell. Scientists have to accept that they do not have access to everything.
They might use personal experiences as a reference how other organisms function (e.g. do animals dream too?), but this has been criticised by critical scientists...
Hey, queen honeybee as well can sting! Not true that only non reproductive individuals can sting. But of course if a queen sting she won't die, since her sting is different from those of the workers. Moreover, honeybee die only if they stings mammals/reptiles, since they won't die when stinging each other or other insects as the sting can be recovered from chitinous tissue without any problem.
First of all, eusocial animals (like ants and bees) behave differently from other animals in that they tend to perform actions for the survival of the whole hive or colony. This is because they have adapted to allotting certain tasks to certain individuals in the community for greater efficiency, creating certain castes or social classes that have their own distinct function. The main function of the drones in a bee community is to fertilize female queens for propagation purposes (and this is also part of the reason why they don't have a sting, because defense is left to the worker bees). If you look at the propagation of bees from an evolutionary point of view, then a drone who dies after having successfully mated would be one of the most successful of all "dronekind", since they are mass produced, and will die anyway regardless of whether they mated or not. Also, though they are most probably not capable of processing a philosophical question ("to mate or not to mate?") and will most likely just do what they were programmed by evolution to do, think about it; if you're going to live for only 90 days anyway, then why pass up the chance of having kids with a hot queen bee? :)
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