Below is a diagram of honey bee anatomy for a worker bee. Scroll down the page for further explanatory notes.
The Head
The hypopharyngeal gland
The head of the honey bee contains the hypopharyngeal gland.
This is
a tube-shaped organ which secretes a protein substance that is fed to
larvae, queens and drones. It is important in the production of royal
jelly.
Eyes
Honey bees have 5 eyes:
The Proboscis
This
is a long tongue which the bees use to suck nectar from flowers into
the mouth. (If you'd like to read about why bees need nectar and
pollen, go
here).
Antennae
Antennae are vitally important in all
insects, and thus have to be kept clean through hygienic behaviours –
you may have observed bees using their legs to groom themselves,
including their antennae. Antennae are vital for touch and smell. They
are used for communication within a
honey bee colony
, for locating food, for sensing predators, and even aid flight.
Thorax
The thorax is the anchor for the legs – the hind legs also featuring pollen baskets (or corbicula).
The forelegs are used for cleaning the antennae. The thorax contains
the flight muscles and salivary gland. There are 2 pairs of wings
attached to the abdomen. As with
bumblebees,
it is believed that honey bees beat their wings an amazing 200 times per second!
The abdomen contains the honey stomach. The honey stomach enables the bee to carry about 75 mg of nectar from a flower back to the nest or hive.
The sting is a modified ovipositor (egg laying organ). Only females are able to sting, and do so only when they feel threat of attack. The sting is barbed and is intended for stinging predators such as other insects, however, it is not adapted for stinging humans! Thus to sting a human means death for the bee, since the barbed feature results in the sting becoming lodged in the skin, tearing the abdomen of the bee as it attempts to pull away.
Bumblebee stings are smooth. For more
information, take a look at
Facts About Bee Stings.
Learn more about
honey bees.
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