What is the primary evolutionary consequence of losing the worker caste in cuckoo bees?
It trades offspring quantity for the survival assurance of a single parasitic larva.
The absence of sterile female workers is a central feature of the parasitic specialization. Social bees rely on workers to manage foraging and colony maintenance, allowing the queen to maximize egg output, leading to a high *quantity* of offspring. Cuckoo bees eliminate this caste entirely. By sacrificing the broad output supported by a workforce, they gain a different advantage: the *survival assurance* provided by hijacking an operational nursery managed by unsuspecting host workers. This singular larva benefits from the hosts' provisioning efforts, making the successful infiltration the ultimate determinant of reproductive success for the season, rather than the sustained output of a colony.
