Diversity in life history of queen and worker honey bees, Apis mellifera L.

•The life history of queen and worker honey bees is studied.•Ontogenetic development of queen and worker bees is firstly shown in pictorial form.•Some interesting phenomena in the ontogenetic development of honeybee are confirmed.

Queen and worker European honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) have similar growth trends but differ greatly in their morphology, physiology, function and developmental timeline. Here, the life history of queen and worker bees was characterized, and reference pictures are provided. The developmental rate of workers was found to differ as much as 3 days, even if the two types of bees were laid within 12 h of each other. We also present some interesting phenomena with regards to the developmental stages of queen and worker bees.

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