SOCIAL INSECTS

Unlike most species, they live in organized groups. Generally, a

Social life positions of insects can be grouped into different categories:

PRESOCIAL INSECTS Exhibit any degree of social behavior beyond the sexual.
but does not reach true sociability. Subsocial insects: it is the most widespread type that
practcan thirteen orders of insects. Adults take care of their larvae for some period of
time.

PARASOCIAL INSECTS: members of the same generation interact with each other and matza with the
categories:

a) Communal insects: members of the same generation use the same nest, without cooperation.
in the care of the offspring.

b) Quasisocial insects: members of the same generation use the same nest and the offspring are
attended in a cooperative manner, but each female still lays eggs at some point in her
life.

c) Semisocial insects: the communal nest contains members of the same generation,
collaborating in the care of the young, but there is a division of reproductive tasks with some
females (queens) laying eggs while their sisters act as workers and rarely
They lay eggs. It differs from eusociality in that the workers are sisters of the queens and not daughters.
Some bees and wasps.

EUSOCIAL INSECTS

They cooperate in the care of the offspring and generally have sterile castes. There is overlapping of
generations with high longevity of the breeding stock. Generally, females
Sterile workers are daughters, not sisters of the queen.

All these different levels occur in certain insects, especially in those of the order
Hymenoptera.

Among social insects are termites (order Isoptera), all ants, many
species of bees and wasps (order Hymenoptera). It also occurs in some members of
Thysanoptera and some aphids.

Their characteristics are: Cooperative parental care Generational overlap Castes

BEES
COLONY Basically consists of thousands of workers coming from a single queen in which
its only function is laying eggs and it is the only fertile female in the colony. The workers that forage and
they produce the honey, taking care of the feeding of the larvae, they are sterile females, imperfectly
developed. The colony also includes a few hundred males (drones) that
they live no more than a few weeks

workers • They are exclusively female bees • The most numerous in the colony (about 30,000
up to 70,000 per hive) • They work tirelessly and are responsible for all the tasks inherent to
Good functioning of the hive. • They live approximately 40 days during the foraging season,
during hibernation approximately 120 days.
Drones (males) • The drones are the only males of the colony. • There are only about a hundred of them.
they are thicker, rounder, and hairier than the workers • They don’t have a stinger • their mission
Essential is to fertilize the queen • they live in spring and summer

Queen • The queen only lays eggs. • She can lay 2000 eggs a day.
It lays male or female eggs, depending on their fertilization: fertilized eggs produce workers,
Those that are not fertilized give birth to drones.

ANTS

Many species build galleries underground, with chambers at the bottom where they keep the
they raise and store the seeds or build their anthills in mounds of soil and matter
vegetable or in decaying tree trunks.

Generally, males retain their wings throughout their life and females only until
after mating. The wingless females are the workers and are sterile. The female
The fertilized one becomes the queen of the colony and her main function is to lay eggs. The
males die after mating and the workers collect food, take care of the
young people and defend the neighborhoods.

Worker ant

Wingless female ants (apterous) that come from fertilized eggs laid by the queen.
Its objective is to care for and defend the anthill, as well as to gather food.

Depending on the species, there can be several types of workers.

19. Male ants come from unfertilized eggs. • Their mission is the
fertilization of future queens.

After mating, the male dies and the female loses her wings.

20. Queen ant There can be one or more, depending on the species. Its mission is to lay eggs.
fertilized that will give rise to workers, males, and new queens. The females are fertilized once.
they mate only once and store the sperm for their entire life.

TERMITES
Colonies consist of between 100 to a million termites. Only the reproductive termites.
the sexual organs are fully developed. There are three main castes: reproductive termites,
soldier and the workers The majority of termite colonies only have a royal pair These
they live longer than other termites. The queen is larger than the other members of the colony.
colony.

Workers Exclusively females, sexually immature and with the exception of the family
Hodotermitdae are blind, their function is the construction and maintenance of the nest, the care and
feeding of the juveniles, feeding of the castes that cannot feed themselves
the same as the soldiers and the royal couple ◦ construction of tunnels for food search,
grooming and cleaning of other castes. Its body is generally poorly sclerotized

Soldiers are sterile adults of both sexes. They are easily recognized by having a head.
large and well-sclerotized, which sometimes becomes larger than the rest of the body. Many
they have very developed jaws to bite the enemy; others are more specialized
they have a pointed face associated with glands. Their role is the defense of the colonies.
termites.

Reproductive termites Primary reproductors (royal couple): The primary reproductors are
called King and Queen. Their bodies are normally well sclerotized, except for the female of
some species, whose abdomen can become enormous due to the hypertrophy of their ovaries.

Secondary breeders: In the event that the queen dies or is very old and her production
If the number of eggs decreases, substitute queens can be produced. They normally have a smaller body.
hardened than the primaries.

REFERENCES:

1. Batra, S. W. T. 1966: Nests and social behavior of halictine bees of India (Hymenoptera:
Halictidae). — Indian J. Entomol 28 375-393.
Wilson, E. O. 1971: The insect societies. — Belknap Press ofHarvard University Press.
Cambridge, Massachusetts.
3.Michener, C. D., Annu. Rev. Entomol, 1969, 14, 299-342.