Researchers from Lund University and the University of Oulu challenge the traditional view of…

Researchers from Lund University and the University of Oulu challenge the traditional view of honeybee colony life. They argue that swarming does not always signify reproduction, and that queen replacement may mark the start of a new superorganism.

Dr. Hannes Bonhoff and Dr. Heikki Helanterä propose treating the colony as a biological whole, where worker bees function like cells in an organism. The emergence of a new queen changes the colony’s genetic makeup, creating a different individual. Thus, a colony occupying the same hive over years is not a single permanent organism but a succession of superorganisms replacing each other across generations.