麻豆社

David Attenborough talks about evolution of the bees. When flowering plants evolved some types of wasp evolved into the bees to make use of their nectar. A queen bumblebee goes in search of a hole to make a new home. She makes a nest of beeswax - a substance no wasp can make. Her daughters take over the building and feeding of a thriving colony, and the queen keeps them in line with pheromones - chemical signals that supresses her daughters' sexuality. The daughters tend the nest and gather nectar and pollen, which is rich in protein. By the end of summer the queen has stopped producing her ant-reproduction hormones, because she needs to lay queen and drone eggs. The downside is that her existing daughters also start to lay eggs, which the queen destroys, but a few will develop into males. Eventually the queen loses control of the colony, her daughters attack her and she is stung to death. None of the workers will survive the winter, only the new queens.