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submitted 7 months ago by spujb@lemmy.cafe to c/196@lemmy.blahaj.zone

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[-] Theharpyeagle@lemmy.world 5 points 7 months ago

Just wait until they hear about bees!

[-] argarath@lemmy.world 4 points 7 months ago

What about bees? I didn't know they had any sex changing or multiple different sexes, only that the males only existed for mating with the queen and then die

[-] Cataphract@lemmy.ml 4 points 7 months ago

[-] Theharpyeagle@lemmy.world 4 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

I'm no expert, but here's a Wikipedia page about it:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honey_bee_life_cycle

And a more in-depth/easy to read article:

https://askentomologists.com/2015/08/05/honeybee-genetics-how-do-they-work/

TL;DR: All fertilized eggs become female bees. Whether a fertilized egg becomes a worker or a queen is based completely on how much royal jelly they are fed by other workers as larvae. Drones (male bees) are born from unfertilized eggs and only contain one set of chromosomes.

Also, there are reptiles that change sex based on the temperature in which their eggs develop. Sex gets weird in the animal kingdom.