Question

What is meant by...
In honey bee, males don't have fathers & thus can't have sons...but have a grand father & can have grand sons...??

Answer 1

This phenomenon is known as Haplodiploidy, it is a sex determination system occur in some insects like in bees. In this system male developed from unfertilized egg and are haploid while female developed from fertilized egg and are diploid. There is no participation of sperm in the formation of male bees, while the queen or the mother bee has a father as it is developed from a fertilized egg. Therefore drone has a grandfather and can have a grandson but do not have a father.