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🥚 Honey Bee Egg Development and Embryology

A 3D cutaway of a honeycomb cell showing a honey bee egg tilt, curl and hatch over three days, with a fertilisation switch that reveals how haplodiploidy decides worker/queen versus drone caste.

Entomology & Insect Behaviour3DModerate60 FPS

A 3D cutaway of a single honeycomb cell follows a honey bee egg from the moment it is glued upright to the cell floor through its gradual three-day tilt, curl and hatch into a legless larva — with a fertilisation switch that reveals how haplodiploidy decides whether the egg becomes a female worker or a male drone.

🔬 What It Demonstrates

The egg's steady tilt from vertical to horizontal over ~72 hours is a real field cue beekeepers use to age brood, while the fertilisation toggle shows haplodiploidy: fertilised (diploid) eggs become female, unfertilised (haploid) eggs become male drones.

🎮 How to Use

Scrub the hours slider or press play to watch the egg develop in real time. Switch fertilisation on or off to compare diploid and haploid outcomes, and toggle the comb cell width to see the cue a queen senses before deciding whether to release sperm.

💡 Did You Know?

A queen can store sperm from her mating flights for years in her spermatheca, releasing a tiny drop to fertilise an egg only when her forelegs sense a narrow worker-sized cell.

⚙ Under the hood

A 3D cutaway of a honeycomb cell where a single honey bee egg tilts, curls and hatches over a real 72-hour timeline, with a fertilisation switch that visualises haplodiploidy deciding worker/queen versus drone caste.

bee-eggembryologyqueen-beefertilisationhaplodiploidybrood-development

3D · Three.js / WebGL renderer · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install