One of the most obvious characteristics of an insect society is reproductive cooperation. Yet insect colonies are vulnerable to reproductive parasitism, both by workers from their own colony and by workers from others. Little is known about the mechanisms insect societies have evolved to protect themselves from being exploited from within and outside the colony and the mechanisms that social parasites have evolved to circumvent these mechanisms. Here we showcase recently discovered cases of intraspecific parasitism by workers in eusocial bees. These discoveries overturn the widespread view that insect colonies are like fortresses populated by female eunuchs, and yield important insights into the mechanisms that normally enforce functional worker sterility.

中文翻译：

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当工人不团结时：正常人蜂种内寄生。

昆虫社会最明显的特征之一就是生殖合作。然而，无论是来自自己殖民地的工人，还是来自其他殖民地的工人，昆虫群落都容易受到生殖寄生的侵害。人们对昆虫社会进化出保护自己免受殖民地内外利用的机制知之甚少，而社会寄生虫也逐渐逃避了这些机制。在这里，我们展示了近亲蜜蜂工人们最近发现的种内寄生虫病例。这些发现推翻了普遍的观点，即昆虫的殖民地就像雌太监居住的要塞一样，并且对通常迫使工人无菌的机制产生了重要的见解。