In honey bee colonies, the queen produces sterile offspring that protect the nest and forage for food. Assess how this altruistic behavior may have arisen through natural selection. Explain your answer in one to two sentences.

Answer 1

This altruistic behavior may have arisen through kin selection, as the sterile offspring are genetically related to the queen and share many of her genes, so their survival and success in protecting the nest increases the chances of those genes being passed on to future generations.