queenless

Queenless is a term used in entomology and beekeeping to describe a social insect colony that no longer contains a functional queen, the primary reproductive individual responsible for laying fertilized eggs. The concept is most commonly applied to honey bees but also to other eusocial insects such as ants and termites. A queenless colony cannot sustain brood production unless it is able to replace the queen.

In honey bees, queen loss may occur when a queen dies, is superseded, or is removed. Without a queen, the colony’s brood will eventually decline, and workers may begin emergency queen rearing by selecting young larvae and feeding them royal jelly, resulting in queen cells that are larger and often located at specific places in the hive. If no new queen is introduced in time, workers may start laying unfertilized eggs that become drones, a condition known as drone laying, which weakens the colony and can lead to collapse.

Management in beekeeping contexts typically involves introducing a new mated queen or a nucleus colony, or providing a queen cell from an external source to allow natural queen replacement. Detecting queenlessness can involve noting the absence of eggs and brood, the absence of a visible queen, and the appearance of queen cells produced by workers.

In other eusocial insects, queenlessness can arise from queen death or removal and may lead to colony decline or, in some species, to the production of replacement queens or colony fission. The specific outcomes vary by species and ecological context.