The queen bee, also known as the queen or colony mother, is the only sexually mature female in a honeybee colony. Her abdomen is significantly longer compared to the two other phenotypes, the drone and the worker, and it slightly increases in volume over her lifetime. Within her body, there are several fully developed egg tubes (ovaries). The queen's role is to lay eggs and to control the colony's life through pheromones to maintain the bee population. Like the workers, the queen also has a stinger, but she only uses it to kill rivals before her mating flight. Queen bees are raised when the colony divides through swarming, or when the existing queen has died or is replaced due to old age; the latter is referred to as supersedure. The development occurs in the same way as that of the workers.