Irreversible sterility of workers and high-volume egg production by queens in the stingless bee Tetragonula carbonaria

Abstract

Social insects are characterised by a reproductive division of labour between queens and workers. However, in the majority of social insect species, the workers are only facultatively sterile. The Australian stingless bee Tetragonula carbonaria is noteworthy as workers never lay eggs. Here, we describe the reproductive anatomy of T. carbonaria workers, virgin queens and mated queens. We then conduct the first experimental test of absolute worker sterility in the social insects. Using a controlled microcolony environment, we investigate whether the reproductive capacity of adult workers can be rescued by manipulating the workers’ social environment and diet. The ovaries of T. carbonaria workers that are queenless and fed unrestricted, highly nutritious royal jelly remain non-functional, indicating they are irreversibly sterile and that ovary degeneration is fixed prior to adulthood. We suggest that T. carbonaria might have evolved absolute worker sterility because colonies are unlikely to ever be queenless.