What are the life cycle stages of a honey bee?

The life cycle of a honey bee consists of four distinct stages: egg, larva, pupa, and adult. This process starts with the queen laying eggs in the hive. The eggs hatch into larvae after about three days, which are then fed by worker bees. This larval stage lasts for about 5-6 days, during which the larvae grow considerably.

Following the larval stage, the bee enters the pupal stage, where it undergoes metamorphosis. During this stage, which lasts around 10-12 days for workers and depends on the type of bee being developed, the pupa is not directly visible as it is enclosed in a cell. The final stage is the adult stage, where the bee emerges, ready to contribute to the hive as a worker, drone, or queen, depending on the type of egg fertilized and the nutrition provided during the larval stage.

This sequential development highlights how honey bees undergo complete metamorphosis, which is a defining characteristic of their life cycle. Other choices do not accurately represent the stages of development, introducing stages that do not correspond to the actual biological process of honey bee maturation. For example, terms like "nymph" are typically associated with insects undergoing incomplete metamorph