News Animals

A secret to making a queen bee may lie in the wax around it

Specialized workers build queen cells with distinct wax that appears to influence larvae

A honeybee grips a lump of pale, irregular wax that hangs against a clear blue sky.

A queen honeybee clings to the rough, peanut-shaped wax of its cell. New research finds that the wax itself helps shape whether a larva becomes a queen.

Yu Fang/Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences

By Anirban Mukhopadhyay

A queen bee may be shaped by more than its famous royal diet.