The Curious Beekeeper
The Curious Case of Honey Bee Castes
Entomology 101 was required for my agronomy degree. On the first day of class, encircled with posters of drosophila, moths, and beetles, I recoiled at the scent of old wooden desks — outfitted with inkwells and graffiti — and the chemical odor of bugs lying dead in cottony beds. Although I grew up around honey bees, other bugs were gross. The reminder of cunning motel roaches, ravenous green apple worms, and maggots cavorting on cow pies made me reconsider a switch to, say, English literature.
My professor, wrinkled and wizened, distributed a syllabus, a list of required reading, lab rules, and a notice of office hours. As he recorded attendance, I searched to no avail for another female student. Back in the day, bugs were for men.
The most important question
Although decades have flown since “Insect Pests of Farm and Garden,” I still recall the first day of class. I remember it because the subject wasn’t pests but honey bees, something I could relate to. I was relieved until the professor announced a provocative thing. He said, “Today, I’m going to give you the answer to the most important question on the final exam. Know it or fail.”
We all leaned forward, pens poised, eager to hear the snippet of know-ledge that would save us from ourselves. After a dramatic pause, he continued. “Our favorite honey bee, Apis mellifera, comes in two sexes, male and female.” I could hear pens scritching paper, everyone recording this remarkable intelligence. “And the female sex comes in two castes, queens and workers. So you see, two sexes and two castes equal three groups of bees.” Scribble, scribble.
This statement disturbed me because, until then, I had never heard the word caste, except regarding Hindu social structure. That and the math was weird, different from anything I learned in high school. For the rest of the lecture, our professor droned about castes within various types of bugs, from ants and bees to wasps and termites — insects with striking social behaviors. Castes, he explained, occur within a sex, but sex alone does not a caste make.
In case you’re wondering, nothing much has changed since then. Certainly, bees haven’t, nor has the definition of caste. The only difference is now nobody cares. Long before the internet and social media arrived, my wily professor could see it coming. That, I suspect, is why he threatened us on the first day of class.
A current concurrence
Nowadays, whenever I peruse a new beekeeping book, I flip to the index and hunt for entries on caste, knowing I will find one of three things. Most commonly, the author will explain that a colony comprises three castes — just plain wrong. Other authors circumvent the word by …
