How is royal jelly produced and what is its significance?

Royal jelly is a unique secretion produced by worker bees that serves as the exclusive food for developing queen larvae. The significance of royal jelly lies in its composition, which is rich in proteins, vitamins, and other nutrients that promote rapid growth and development in queen larvae, allowing them to grow larger and develop reproductive organs. This specialized diet is critical, as it influences the differentiation of the queen bees from worker bees.

Worker bees secrete royal jelly from glands in their heads. When a colony decides to rear a new queen, they will select a few fertilized eggs and feed them royal jelly. This diet is the key factor that transforms an ordinary egg into a queen, ensuring that the colony can maintain a healthy and productive queen to sustain its population. This distinction underscores the vital role royal jelly plays in the life cycle of honeybee colonies. The other options do not accurately reflect the role and source of royal jelly, highlighting its specificity to the development of queens rather than being a general food source for all bees or produced by other types of bees.