Study spells out why some insects kill their mothers
Friday, October 30, 2015 - 08:00
in Biology & Nature
Among social insects, why does it pay for workers to help the queen in some situations but then also pay to kill her in others? What explains why some queens get killed and not others, and why kill her at all? One expert explored these questions, and found that by eliminating the queen, a matricidal worker frees the way for workers to lay male eggs.