Patriline
A group of workers in a colony sharing the same drone father.
Bees
Definition
Because a queen mates with ten to twenty drones, a colony contains roughly that many groups of half-sisters. Patrilines differ in behavioural tendencies, so multiple mating produces behavioural as well as genetic diversity — and colonies with more diverse paternity regulate temperature more precisely and forage more consistently.
See also
Other bees terms
Sources
Sources
- The Lives of Bees: The Untold Story of the Honey Bee in the Wild — Princeton University Press (2019) · Monograph
- The Biology of the Honey Bee — Harvard University Press (1987) · Textbook
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