A honey bee is doing what a honey bee is programmed to do. As you acknowledge her genes are her mother's ... the queen: Her queen. Of course the queen doesn't die for the hive. Do you see elder statesmen picking up swords? If the queen dies for the workers the ability to produce another generation dies with her.

Lets take another example IFF. The cooperative behaviour of schooling fish.

When a tuna approaches ... they knot themselves into a ball: Why? They could all just flee in entirely separate directions and decreasing the density of the apparent food source. Is it altruism? Is it self-destructive? Is it a successful strategy? Millions of years of evolution can't be wrong.

DA Morgan