Honeybees (Apis mellifera) are social insects that live in large colonies - Scottish Highers Biology - Question 14 - 2022

Explanation: The behavior is described as kin selection because the bees that raise the young are related to them, sharing a significant portion of their genetic material. This increases the overall fitness of the shared genes within the colony.

Advantage: One advantage of this behavior is that it increases the survival rates of shared genes or DNA, ensuring that the traits beneficial for the colony are passed on to the next generation.

One other role of these sterile bees is to defend the hive and protect the queen. They may also engage in tasks such as repairing the hive, collecting nectar, or performing the waggle dance to communicate the direction of food.

To find the number of colonies at the end of 2009, we first calculate the colony loss from the initial amount. If the initial number of colonies was 2.5 × 10^6 and the annual loss was 30% (approximate estimation based on the graph data), we can calculate:

Loss = 2.5 × 10^6 × 0.30 = 0.75 × 10^6.

Subtracting this from the initial number gives us:

Remaining colonies = 2.5 × 10^6 - 0.75 × 10^6 = 1.75 × 10^6 colonies.

The relationship observed between insecticide use and the annual loss of honeybee colonies suggests that as insecticide use increases, the percentage of colony losses also tends to increase. This points to a negative impact where higher insecticide levels correlate with declining honeybee populations.