system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5 how it's possible for bees to have evolved stingers that kill them on use

I mean, if evolution is the strongest living and mating and the weakest dying, and a bee's one form of attack will kill them, then the strongest bees with these stingers would die out...right?
gpt
Disclaimer: not an expert.

IIRC bees only die when stinging something with a comparatively thick skin, like say... a human.

Most of the things bees are stinging have thin enough skin/exoskeletons that the stinger doesn't become lodged in it and tear off, killing the bee. So from a natural selective perspective, bees' stingers work fine.

It's only when they go up against an unusual foe, like a human, that this disadvantage comes into play, and it doesn't happen often enough that it matters on an evolutionary scale.

Finally, the bees doing the stinging are the ~~drones~~ workers, which are not the ones doing the breeding. Natural selection only effects how well something can reproduce, not how long any member of the species lives. So a worker or two dying doesn't effect the reproductive abilities of the hive.