system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Yellow jacket bugs such as wasps and bees and hornets use their stingers as a defensive mechanism but die shortly after utilizing it. If the ones that don't use their stinger are more likely to survive, why hasn't evolution/natural selection phased out stingers?
gpt
Solitary wasps and hornets do not die when they sting. The sting lacks the hooks that makes it stick in the victim. (I would assume solitary bees would be the same.) But colony bees do. This makes sense. The colony insects live to protect the hive. By leaving the stinger in the animal, they cause continued pain that makes the attacking animal give up sooner. This protects the hive better, even if it causes the death of the single insect.