Abstract: As eusocial insects, the honeybees Apis mellifera, are characterized by the extreme reproductive division of labor. The queen monopolizes reproduction in a colony, and the workers refrain from, are coerced not to, or have lost the ability to reproduce, undertaking all the functions inside and outside of the hive except for egg laying and mating. However, in occasional “anarchistic” queenright colonies, many workers have activated ovaries and lay eggs, so the majority of drones are the offsprings of workers but not the queen. These anarchistic bees provide a superb model for investigating the mechanisms underlying the sterility in honeybee workers. In this article the characteristics, causes and genetic basis of anarchistic colonies are reviewed. Many workers lay eggs in anarchistic colonies and these eggs could escape the worker policing. The anarchistic behavior is affected by several factors, including environmental conditions, genetic constitution and gene expression. Moreover, the genetic structure system of anarchistic behavior is quite complex and many genes may be involved in the regulation. Researches on the behavioral mechanisms of anarchistic colonies will shed light on the studies of the regulation of honeybee worker sterility and the identification and characterization of the genes that control worker sterility in social insects.

Key words: Honeybee, anarchistic colony, worker reproduction, worker policing, genetic basis, behavioral characteristics