Question

Assertion:
The honey bee queen copulates only once in her lifetime.
Reason:
The honey bee queen lays fertilized as well as unfertilized eggs.

a. Both Assertion and Reason are correct and reason is the correct explanation for Assertion.
b. Both Assertion and Reason are correct but reason is not the correct explanation for Assertion.
c. Assertion is correct but Reason is incorrect.
d. Both Assertion and Reason are incorrect.

Answer 1

Hint: A honey bee is a group of insects that belong to the family of Apidae and the order of Hymenoptera. These insects include all bees that are famous for producing honey. Honeybees are social insects and they reside together as a community in the hives.

Complete answer:
A honey bee is a type of eusocial flying insect. It belongs to the genus Apis of the bee clade. There is a long, straw-like tongue in all honey bees which is known as a proboscis. Through this tongue, the bees drink the nectar from deep within blossoms. Bees also possess two wings, two antennae. And their body is segmented into three parts which are the head, the thorax, and the abdomen.

Honeybees are popularly known as social insects because of their living characteristics as they live in colonies. In a hive or nest, there are three types of bees present which are a single queen, a few hundred drones, and thousands of worker bees.

A single queen present in the beehive is the only female bee that can be fertile. It bears immensely developed ovaries. She can stay alive for several successive years and able to lay about 2000 or more eggs per day. In her total lifespan, she can lay up to about 1,500000 eggs. The queen bee also can regulate the fertilization of its eggs. After fertilization, a fertilized egg is put in a worker or queen cell or honeycomb, and an unfertilized egg is put into a drone cell which further develops parthenogenetically. In her total lifespan, the queen bee mates only once and she is able to store the sperms in her spermatheca. These stored sperm fertilize her eggs as long as she lives.

In this case, both Assertion and Reason are correct but reason is not the correct explanation for Assertion.
Hence, the correct answer is option (B).

Additional information:
Honey bees are famous for their honey. They collect honey from the deep of a flower and they carry the nectar, store it in the honeycomb cell which is used as medicinal nutrients to mankind. Bees also help in pollination. During the collection of honey, they also transfer the pollen.

Note: Honey bees are a group of flying insects. They are called social animals as they live in a colony which is known as a hive or nest. This incest is famous for the honey which is collect by them from the flower. They are also important for pollination. There is one queen bee, a few hundred drones, and thousands of worker bees present in hives and the only queen bee can be fertile. It mates only once in her lifetime.