A queen honey bee lays 120 eggs in a day…
Contributed by StemPy LabTry it on paper first. A hint, the key idea and the worked solution are here when you need them.
A queen honey bee lays eggs in a day. She fertilises per cent of them with stored sperm.
- How many of the eggs become female bees?
- How many become drones?
- How many chromosomes are in each sperm of a drone?
Need a reminder? The key ideaShow
In humans and the fruit fly, the father decides the sex, because half the sperm carry X and half carry Y. In birds the egg decides, because the female is ZW. In the honey bee, a fertilised egg (2n = 32) becomes a female and an unfertilised egg (n = 16) becomes a drone.
The worked solution
Have you tried it?
Work it out on paper first. It is fine to get stuck or make a mistake: that is how we learn. When you are ready, go through the solution one step at a time, and check each step against your own.
Given. eggs, fertilised.
Plan. Fertilised eggs have two sets of chromosomes and become females. Eggs that are not fertilised have one set and become drones.
Step 1. (a) female bees.
Step 2. (b) drones.
Step 3. (c) A drone has chromosomes in each body cell. He makes sperm by mitosis, so each sperm also has chromosomes.
Answer: female bees; drones; chromosomes.
Check. .
Watch out. A drone does not make sperm by meiosis. If he did, his sperm would have only chromosomes.
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