Western honey bee - Quiz
Western honey bee
  • 1. What internal body temperature does the western honey bee need to fly?
A) 22–25 °C (72–77 °F)
B) 50 °C (122 °F)
C) 20–22 °C (68–72 °F)
D) 35 °C (95 °F)
  • 2. How low may the winter cluster's internal temperature drop?
A) 20–22 °C (68–72 °F)
B) 35 °C (95 °F)
C) 7–10 °C (45–50 °F)
D) 22–25 °C (72–77 °F)
  • 3. Over what air-temperature range can western honey bees forage?
A) 45 °C (113 °F) range
B) 10 °C (50 °F) range
C) 30 °C (86 °F) range
D) 15 °C (59 °F) range
  • 4. What is the mechanism used by bees at low air temperatures before flight?
A) Regurgitating honey
B) Passive body-temperature regulation
C) Evaporative cooling
D) Shivering
  • 5. What cooling method is used by bees from regurgitated honey-sac contents at high air temperatures?
A) Conduction
B) Asphyxiation
C) Evaporative cooling
D) Shivering
  • 6. What factors cause body temperatures to differ in western honey bees?
A) Age and hive size
B) Flight distance and wind speed
C) Color and honey production
D) Caste and expected foraging rewards
  • 7. What is the optimal air temperature for foraging?
A) 20–22 °C (68–72 °F)
B) 35 °C (95 °F)
C) 22–25 °C (72–77 °F)
D) 30 °C (86 °F)
  • 8. Where does the honey bee release heat through evaporative cooling during flight?
A) Through its abdomen
B) Through its stinger
C) Through its wings
D) Through its mouth
  • 9. Under hot conditions, where is heat from the thorax dissipated?
A) Through the head
B) Through the legs
C) Through the abdomen
D) Through the wings
  • 10. What is the dropped warm internal fluid used to reduce head temperature called?
A) Hemolymph bead
B) A honeycrop droplet
C) A wax particle
D) A nectar bubble
  • 11. By how much does the honeycrop droplet reduce the temperature of the bee's head?
A) 35 °C (95 °F)
B) 5 °C (9 °F)
C) 10 °C (18 °F)
D) 22 °C (72 °F)
  • 12. At what low temperature range do bees become immobile?
A) Below 20 °C (68 °F)
B) Below 15 °C (59 °F)
C) Below 7–10 °C (45–50 °F)
D) Below 0 °C (32 °F)
  • 13. At what high temperature do bees experience slowed activity?
A) Above 45 °C (113 °F)
B) Above 50 °C (122 °F)
C) Above 30 °C (86 °F)
D) Above 38 °C (100 °F)
  • 14. What is the maximum temperature western honey bees can tolerate for short periods?
A) 42 °C (108 °F)
B) 35 °C (95 °F)
C) 38 °C (100 °F)
D) 50 °C (122 °F)
  • 15. Which thermal defense do western honey bees lack compared to Apis cerana?
A) Thoracic heating
B) Evaporative cooling
C) The thermal defense exhibited by Apis cerana
D) Shivering
  • 16. Which western honey bee subspecies is capable of killing invading hornets through asphyxiation?
A) Apis cerana
B) Apis mellifera cypria
C) Apis mellifera ligustica
D) Apis mellifera mellifera
  • 17. How does the subspecies Apis mellifera cypria kill invading hornets?
A) Through asphyxiation
B) Through high temperatures
C) Through venomous stinging
D) Through starvation
  • 18. What is the primary basis for behavioral and physiological differences between castes and subcastes?
A) Random genetic mutation
B) Phenotypic plasticity
C) Heritable genotypic differences
D) Environmental temperature
  • 19. What type of differences do NOT cause the variations between castes and subcastes?
A) Dietary differences during larval stages
B) Heritable genotypic differences
C) Phenotypic plasticity differences
D) Gene expression differences
  • 20. Which bee caste is a fertile female with a fully developed reproductive system?
A) Drone
B) Forager
C) Worker
D) Queen
  • 21. How do queens compare in size to workers?
A) Size varies randomly regardless of caste
B) They are the exact same size
C) Workers are larger
D) Queens are larger
  • 22. What characteristic physical feature is rounder and longer in a queen bee?
A) Mandible
B) Thorax
C) Abdomen
D) Head
  • 23. What kind of egg can potentially become either a queen or a worker bee?
A) Diploid male egg
B) Unfertilized egg
C) Drone egg
D) Female egg
  • 24. What substance are both worker and queen larvae fed during their first three days?
A) Mixed pollen and nectar
B) Royal jelly
C) Honey only
D) Bee bread
  • 25. Royal jelly is high in protein and low in which component?
A) Lipids
B) Vitamins
C) Flavonoids
D) Sugars
  • 26. What common term is used for the mixed pollen and nectar fed to worker larvae?
A) Hive mix
B) Nectar mash
C) Brood paste
D) Bee bread
  • 27. Which larvae continue to receive royal jelly throughout their larval development?
A) Prospective workers
B) Prospective queens
C) Prospective drones
D) All larvae equally
  • 28. How many general causes are there for a colony to determine that a new queen is needed?
A) Three
B) Two
C) Five
D) Four
  • 29. What triggers a swarm in relation to hive conditions?
A) The old queen dies suddenly
B) A lack of royal jelly in the hive
C) Excessive cold weather in winter
D) The hive is filled with honey, leaving little room for new eggs
  • 30. During a swarm, what proportion of worker bees does the old queen typically take with her?
A) All of them
B) About half
C) A small fraction
D) None of them
  • 31. What term describes the situation when an old queen begins to fail and is usually killed?
A) Swarming
B) Supersedure
C) Colony collapse
D) Emergency supersedure
  • 32. A failing old queen is thought to be demonstrated by a decrease in what substance throughout the hive?
A) Royal jelly
B) Queen pheromones
C) Honey stores
D) Bee bread
  • 33. What is the situation called when the old queen dies suddenly?
A) Natural swarming
B) Emergency supersedure
C) Standard supersedure
D) Brood termination
  • 34. How can emergency supersedure generally be recognized regarding the new queen cells?
A) They are identical to drone cells
B) They are built out from comb cells
C) They are painted with propolis
D) They are placed outside the hive entirely
  • 35. Where do typical queen cells hang from in standard situations?
A) The sides of the entrance
B) The top of the hive
C) The bottom of a frame
D) The center of the honeycomb
  • 36. What orientation are queen cells built in?
A) Horizontally
B) Upside down
C) Diagonally
D) Vertically
  • 37. What position does the queen move into when she finishes her larval feeding and pupates?
A) Head-upward position
B) Rolled into a ball
C) Head-downward position
D) Horizontal position
  • 38. How does a new queen exit her cell when she is ready?
A) She chews her way out
B) Workers open it for her
C) She pushes through the bottom
D) It dissolves in royal jelly
  • 39. What action do workers take on the queen cell at pupation?
A) They feed her honey
B) They move the cell to the bottom
C) They cap (seal) the cell
D) They tear down the cell
  • 40. Where does a young queen fly after several days of orientation in and around the hive?
A) To another established hive
B) To a distant flower field
C) To a drone congregation area
D) To the highest tree branch
  • 41. Where do drones mate with the queen?
A) On the ground
B) In midair
C) On a leaf surface
D) Inside the hive
  • 42. What objects can drones be induced to mate with?
A) Small wooden sticks
B) Worker bees coated in pollen
C) Flower blossoms
D) Dummy queens with the queen pheromone
  • 43. How many times does a queen mate?
A) Exactly twice
B) Only once
C) Multiple times
D) Never
  • 44. Until what point does a queen continue to leave and mate over several days?
A) Until she runs out of energy
B) Until winter arrives
C) Until her spermatheca is full
D) Until the workers stop her
  • 45. Who lays all the eggs in a healthy colony?
A) The workers
B) The queen
C) The drones
D) The foragers
  • 46. When do queens generally begin to slow their egg-laying?
A) During a heavy nectar flow
B) In the midsummer
C) In the early fall
D) In the early spring
  • 47. When does egg-laying generally resume after slowing down or stopping?
A) Only when summer begins
B) In mid-autumn
C) When the old queen dies
D) In late winter when the days lengthen
  • 48. During which season does egg-laying peak?
A) Autumn
B) Winter
C) Late summer
D) Spring
  • 49. At the height of the season, how many eggs may the queen lay per day?
A) Over 10,000 eggs
B) Over 2,500 eggs
C) Over 500 eggs
D) Exactly 100 eggs
  • 50. When does the queen fertilize an egg?
A) Only when the workers request it
B) Before it is formed in her body
C) As it is laid in a worker-sized cell
D) After it is placed in a drone cell
  • 51. What is used to fertilize eggs laid in worker-sized cells?
A) Nectar collected from flowers
B) Royal jelly secreted by workers
C) Pollen nutrients
D) Stored sperm from the spermatheca
  • 52. What happens to eggs laid in drone-sized cells?
A) They are left unfertilized
B) They are fertilized with extra sperm
C) They are immediately destroyed by workers
D) They develop into new queens
  • 53. How many genes do unfertilized drone eggs have compared to queen or worker eggs?
A) No genes
B) Twice as many genes
C) The exact same number of genes
D) Half as many genes
  • 54. Unfertilized eggs develop into which caste?
A) Workers
B) Queens
C) Foragers
D) Drones
  • 55. What is the sex of worker bees?
A) Male
B) Hermaphrodite
C) Female
D) Asexual
  • 56. What type of eggs do workers develop from?
A) Fertilized, diploid eggs
B) Drone eggs
C) Unfertilized, haploid eggs
D) Pollen-fed eggs
  • 57. Why do workers carry out the main tasks of the colony?
A) Because workers outlive the queen by years
B) Because the queen is occupied solely with reproducing
C) Because the queen lives outside the hive
D) Because workers are stronger than the queen
  • 58. What do workers do for their sister workers and future queens?
A) Compete with them for food
B) Raise them
C) Ignore them completely
D) Exile them
  • 59. What do future queens eventually do after being raised by workers?
A) Leave the nest to start their own colony
B) Take over the current queen's exact position immediately
C) Leave the hive to become foragers
D) Transform into worker bees
  • 60. What is one of the defensive roles of workers?
A) Defend the flowers from other insects
B) Defend the drone congregation area
C) Defend the swarm site from rain
D) Defend the colony
  • 61. What does the Latin species name mellifera mean?
A) hive-building or winged
B) honey-bearing or honey-carrying
C) sweet-tasting or nectar-producing
D) fast-flying or social
  • 62. What is the reproductive status of workers in a western honey bee colony?
A) Fully fertile queens in training
B) Sterile males that do not forage
C) Fertile females capable of laying all eggs
D) Normally non-reproductive females
  • 63. What is the reproductive status of drones in a western honey bee colony?
A) Fertile egg-laying females
B) Fertile males
C) Sterile workers
D) Non-reproductive females
  • 64. What status was the western honey bee assessed as on the IUCN Red List as of 2025?
A) Least Concern
B) Critically Endangered
C) Extinct in the Wild
D) Data Deficient
  • 65. On which continent is the western honey bee NOT found?
A) North America
B) Antarctica
C) Asia
D) Africa
  • 66. Where is the western honey bee believed to have originated?
A) Australia or New Zealand
B) Africa or Asia
C) North America or South America
D) Antarctica or Europe
  • 67. How many recognized subspecies of western honey bees are there?
A) 12
B) 7
C) 31
D) 50
  • 68. Which major branch contains African western honey bee subspecies?
A) Branch O
B) Branch C
C) Branch M
D) Branch A
  • 69. Which major branch contains Middle Eastern western honey bee subspecies?
A) Branch C
B) Branch O
C) Branch A
D) Branch M
  • 70. What scientific method confirmed the four major branches of western honey bee subspecies?
A) Behavioral observation in deserts
B) Mitochondrial DNA analysis
C) Pollen tracking analysis
D) Wing venation measurement
  • 71. Who originally worked on dividing the subspecies into major branches later confirmed by DNA analysis?
A) Darwin
B) Mendel
C) Linnaeus
D) Ruttner
  • 72. Because of their high degree of sociality and permanence, western honey bee colonies can be considered what?
A) Superorganisms
B) Ecosystems
C) Megacolonies
D) Symbionts
  • 73. When the swarm leaves the old colony, approximately what fraction of the adult workers go with the old queen?
A) Only ten percent
B) Approximately two-thirds
C) Exactly one-fourth
D) All of them
  • 74. What do daughter queens often start doing just prior to emerging as adults in the old colony?
A) Foraging
B) Swarming
C) Piping
D) Dancing
  • 75. What trait allows virgin females in bees, wasps, and ants to lay eggs that develop into males?
A) Metamorphosis
B) Polyploidy
C) Haplodiploidy
D) Parthenogenesis exclusively via diploid cells
  • 76. What percentage or more of bees in the colony at any given time are female offspring?
A) 90%
B) 10%
C) 50%
D) 25%
  • 77. What probably triggers the queen to start laying eggs again in mid- through late winter?
A) Day length
B) The temperature dropping below freezing
C) The arrival of spring rain
D) The appearance of the first drone
  • 78. In what type of toxicity studies are western honey bees also used, especially via pollen?
A) Pesticide toxicity
B) Plastics toxicity
C) Heavy metal toxicity
D) Radiation toxicity
  • 79. What do African subspecies exhibit as an adaptation to local environments?
A) Producing honey without pollen
B) Migratory swarming
C) Forming a winter cluster
D) Hibernating for six months
  • 80. How many distinct life stages does the western honey bee have?
A) Two
B) Five
C) Four
D) Three
  • 81. How long after being sealed in its cell does the larva emerge as an adult bee?
A) Another two weeks
B) Another three days
C) Another month
D) Another week
  • 82. What are young bees in the comb commonly called?
A) Nymphs
B) Drones
C) Brood
D) Larvae
  • 83. What type of offspring do worker bees produce when they lay eggs?
A) Sterile offspring
B) Diploid (female) offspring
C) Haploid (male) offspring
D) Queen offspring
  • 84. What is the stinger of queens and workers?
A) An internal gland
B) A mutated leg
C) A modified ovipositor
D) A specialized antenna
  • 85. Where are drones typically located inside hive clusters?
A) Near the entrance
B) Near the center
C) Scattered randomly
D) At the very top
  • 86. What fraction of genes does a fertile female worker share with her own produced drones?
A) One-quarter
B) One-half
C) All of them
D) Three-quarters
  • 87. What fraction of genes does a fertile female worker share with her brothers?
A) Three-quarters
B) One-quarter
C) None
D) One-half
  • 88. What is the phenomenon called where worker bees patrol the hive and remove worker-laid eggs?
A) Kin selection
B) Worker policing
C) Thermoregulation
D) Anarchic syndrome
  • 89. What is worker policing an example of?
A) Natural selection failure
B) Anarchic syndrome
C) Forced altruism
D) Group starvation
  • 90. What is it called when workers subvert policing mechanisms and lay eggs faster than others remove them?
A) Queen-worker conflict
B) Anarchic syndrome
C) Worker policing
D) Haploid mutation
  • 91. What molecule is measured to determine increased DNA damage in flight muscle?
A) Adenosine triphosphate
B) 8-Oxo-2'-deoxyguanosine
C) Ribonucleic acid
D) Deoxyribonucleic acid
  • 92. Who received the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for studying honey bee communication?
A) Gregor Mendel
B) Charles Darwin
C) Jacobus Biesmeijer
D) Karl von Frisch
  • 93. What type of dance indicates that food is within 50 metres of the hive?
A) The vibration dance
B) The jerking dance
C) The round dance
D) The waggle dance
  • 94. What sense do foragers rely on to help locate a food source after being directed by dances?
A) Auditory sense
B) Tactile sense
C) Visual sense
D) Olfactory sense
  • 95. Do close relatives of western honey bees, such as dwarf honey bees, change the precision of the waggle dance for new goal sites?
A) Only in summer
B) No
C) Only for close food sources
D) Yes
  • 96. What percentage of observed shaking signals were executed by experienced foragers in Biesmeijer's study?
A) 92%
B) 64%
C) 50%
D) 71%
  • 97. What percentage of shaking signals were made after the discovery of a food source?
A) 92%
B) 64%
C) 50%
D) 71%
  • 98. What percentage of shaking signals occurred before the first five successful foraging flights of the day?
A) 92%
B) 71%
C) 50%
D) 64%
  • 99. Towards which type of bees is the shaking signal preferentially directed?
A) Inactive bees
B) Experienced foragers
C) Dwarf honey bees
D) Returning worker bees
  • 100. Are all three forms of communication among honey bees effective in foraging and task management?
A) Yes
B) Only the round dance is effective
C) Only the waggle dance is effective
D) No
Created with That Quiz — a math test site for students of all grade levels.