The latest studies of bee colonies, which can include up to 80,000

Generally, "believed to be" is considered a wrong idiom in GMAT.

This is a question of comparisons. All except C compare the social structure of the bee colonies to human beings. This is incorrect. The correct comparison is b/w the social structure of the bee colonies and that (social structure) of human beings

Here's the official explanation provided by the GMAC for this question:

This sentence compares bees' social structure to human social structures and to other social structures in the animal kingdom. The wording must clearly and concisely compare the bees' social structure only to other social structures, while indicating that the comparison as a whole involves all the social structures in the animal kingdom.

Option A: This absurdly compares the bees' social structure to human beings in the animal kingdom, rather than to all the animal kingdom's social structures.

Option B: This absurdly compares the bees' social structure and other social structures in the animal kingdom to human beings themselves. Moreover, the use of after does not adequately convey what is intended: that bees’ social structure is second in complexity only to humans’ social structures.

Option C: Correct. This clearly and concisely expresses the intended meaning that bees' social structure is the second-most elaborate in the animal kingdom. The pronoun that refers back to social structure.

Option D: This absurdly compares the bees' social structure and other social structures in the animal kingdom to human beings themselves, rather than to human beings' social structures.

Option E: The phrase disregarding that of is an unnecessarily wordy and unclear substitute for next to. It confusingly suggests that the bees' social structure itself is disregarding humans' social structure. Furthermore, in the animal kingdom may be misread as modifying either human beings or that of human beings, rather than social structure.

The correct answer is C.

Please note that I'm not the author of this explanation. I'm just posting it here since I believe it can help the community.

So the human being are part of animal kingdom?

Hello Paagrio,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, yes; humans are scientifically classified as animals, as opposed to say plants or fungus.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team

The Spoiler in the question shows A, so according to the NYTimes Article is A correct or C as per GMAT/People's Answer/Explanation?