queenlessadj.
/ˈkwiːnlᵻs/, U.S. /ˈkwinləs/ 1. Of a colony of social insects, esp. honeybees: lacking a queen; cf. queenright adj. Also: (of an ant species) having no queen caste.
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the world > animals > invertebrates > phylum Arthropoda > class Insecta > order Hymenoptera > [adjective] > belonging to division Petiolata > belonging to division Anthophila > of or belonging to bees > relating to queen bee > having no queen
queenless1780
1780 J. Keys Pract. Bee-master xvii. 267 If the queenless Stock be your own, poise it in your hands, and if you judge there be enough honey left worth taking [etc.].
1789 J. Bonner Bee-master's Compan. vi. 49 I took a Queen from a hive, and put to one of my Queenless hives.
1853 L. L. Langstroth Hive & Honey-bee x. 183 So uniformly do the bees with an unhatched queen, build in the way described, that I can often tell at a single glance, by seeing what kind of comb they are building, that a hive is queenless.
1880 Jrnl. Linn. Soc. 15 176 I procured a queen..and put her with some honey in a queenless nest.
1965 J. D. Carthy Behaviour of Arthropods vi. 82 If a second fence is put in..at such a distance that the tongues of the workers cannot cross the gap, queen cells begin to appear in the queenless half.
1992 H. R. C. Riches Handbk. Beekeeping vii. 75 Before attempting to introduce a new queen, the first essential is to be sure that the receiving colony is queenless.
1995 Amer. Naturalist 146 602 This is a queenless species and all the workers are reproductive.
2. gen. Without a queen.
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1832 J. D. Pigott Johannice ii. x. 82 Next told that thou hadst pass'd away, And left me queenless, lone, as now!
1840 A. Strickland Lives Queens of Eng. I. 64 William, perceiving the disadvantages attendant on a queenless court,..despatched a noble company into Normandy, to conduct Matilda and her children to England.
1937 D. M. Hoare Wks. Morris & Yeats in rel. to Early Saga Lit. App. 156 The men of Ireland gave one and the same reply to Eochaid, that it was not their custom to hold the feast of Tara for a king who was queenless.
1998 Daily Tel. 1 June 21/1 Shirov..was out-played in the queenless middlegame as he lost the sacrificed pawn.
Derivatives
ˈqueenlessness n. [in quot. 1853 after German Weiserlosigkeit, apparently a regional variant of Weisellosigkeit]
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the world > animals > invertebrates > phylum Arthropoda > class Insecta > order Hymenoptera > [noun] > suborder Apocrita, Petiolata, or Heterophaga > group Aculeata (stinging) > superfamily Apoidea (bees) > queen bee > state of having no queen
queenlessness1853
1853 H. Dieck & S. Stutterd tr. L. L. Langstroth Hive & Honey-bee xii. 275 An experienced eye will decide upon the queenlessness, (to use the German term,) of a hive, from the restless appearance of the bees.
1920 H. Geary Bee-keeper's Vade-Mecum 136 This weakness may arise from several causes: dysentery, queenlessness, poor queens, or by severe losses in flying bees.
1994 Ethol., Ecol. & Evol. 6 507 The combination of polygyny and natural queenlessness is uncommon in ants.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2007; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.1780