laying worker: a standalone construct

A laying worker is a worker honey bee whose ovaries become active, usually after a colony has lost its queen and the queen's inhibitory influence fades, so that she lays eggs. Because workers cannot mate, those eggs are unfertilised and develop into drones, so a hopelessly queenless colony of laying workers drifts toward collapse. Page and Erickson's 1988 study of reproduction by worker honey bees examines when workers activate their ovaries and lay, and how that reproduction plays out in the colony. The referent is worker reproduction and its colony consequences, measured by the fraction of workers with active ovaries and by the appearance of drone brood in worker cells.[1]

Unit

A worker bee with activated ovaries laying unfertilised eggs

Recovery means

A queenright colony suppresses worker ovary activation; a laying-worker colony is usually only recoverable early, before workers become fully established

Measured by

Assessed by dissecting workers for ovary activation and by the presence of multiple drone eggs laid in worker cells