Among the three criteria of eusociality by the accepted definition is the presence of reproductive castes, such that there is a marked bias in reproductive output among adult colony members. Typically, the primary caste division is between queens (in social wasps, social bees, and ants) or queens and kings (in termites) on the one hand, and workers on the other hand. Queens (and kings) do most or all of the reproducing, while workers reproduce little or not at all. There is some dissatisfaction with this purely functional definition of reproductive castes, especially among those who study ants, but for present purposes it will suffice. The distinction between queens and workers is reflected in an external physical makeup in some social wasps, while in others it is not, at least not reliably so.
Differences between queens and workers can be determined behaviorally and physiologically in the adult stage, or earlier through differences in nutrition during larval development (pre-imaginal...
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Noll, F.B., da Silva, M., Oliveira, L.A., Mateus, S. (2021). Caste: Social Wasps. In: Starr, C.K. (eds) Encyclopedia of Social Insects. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28102-1_140
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