Drone

Definition

Drones develop from unfertilised eggs and are haploid. They are larger and blunter than workers with enormous eyes, gather at drone congregation areas where queens fly to mate, and die immediately on mating. Those that do not mate are evicted from the hive in autumn and starve, because a colony will not feed them through a winter in which they are useless.

Where the word gets used loosely

Drones are frequently described as lazy or as parasites on the colony. They are the colony's entire genetic contribution to other colonies, which is not a small job — and the eviction in autumn is an economic decision rather than a punishment.

Bee records that discuss this

• Asian honey beeThe western honey bee's counterpart across Asia, and a bee whose importance is out of all proportion to its honey yield. Apis cerana is the original host of Varroa destructor — the mite that has reshaped beekeeping worldwide — and it lives with the parasite without collapse. Understanding how is one of the more consequential open questions in apiculture.

Guide records that discuss this

• The honey bee lifecycleEvery honey bee passes through egg, larva, pupa and adult, and the timing differs by caste in ways that decide almost everything about how a colony works — including why the varroa mite is so difficult to control.
• The drone bee explainedDrones are male honey bees with one function, no sting, no pollen baskets and no ability to feed themselves properly. They are also, contrary to their reputation, not freeloaders.
• Honey in ancient Greece and RomeThe classical world took bees seriously enough to write manuals about them, argue about where they came from, and get most of the biology wrong in ways that lasted until the seventeenth century.
• Stingless bees vs honey beesBoth are eusocial, both store honey, both have queens and workers — and they have been evolving apart for something like eighty million years. Almost everything else differs.