From: O'Regan, Emlyn (Emlyn.ORegan@actew.com.au)
Date: Tue Nov 30 1999 - 17:38:20 MST
> An example: Drones help a beehive survive. Just because they don't
> produce
> does not mean that they are an evolutionary dead end. Their evolution was
> crucial in the survival of hive-based groups. By having non-reproducing
> workers do all the engineering and work, this frees up the breeders to do
> nothing but breed. Neither could survive without the other. People who
> think that the breeders are highly evolved while the drones are unevolved,
> deviant evolutionary mistakes, is not recognizing the full range of
> evolutionary processes. Evolution developed the entire hive structure to
> allow the propagation of each succeeding generation.
>
Just to jump in and be an unproductive nit-picker... As I understand it,
drones are the fertile males who sit on their bums being looked after by the
workers (infertile females). When the queen whistles, they come a runnin'!
Emlyn
(who has already passed on genes which are obviously vital to the ultimate
success of our species)
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