Polyandry
Lexikon
Polyandry means that the queen mates with several males.
Polyandry means that the queen mates with several males. About a week after emerging she flies to a drone congregation area and mates there in flight with a whole series of drones from other colonies. The figures for the number of partners vary depending on the source; about five to twenty are mentioned. The semen is mixed and stored in the spermatheca, where it remains usable for years.
This has consequences for relatedness in the colony. Workers with the same mother and the same father are about 75 percent related and form a so-called subfamily. Workers from the same colony with different fathers are about 37.5 percent related, and if the fathers come from different colonies it is around 25 percent. The high relatedness within a subfamily results from the fact that the drone passes on his entire single set of genes unchanged.
Biologically, multiple mating gives the colony a broad genetic makeup, which better buffers disease pressure and changing conditions. For the breeder, conversely, it means that the paternal side can only be controlled by controlled mating at a mating station or by instrumental insemination.