Anatomy of the Bee
The Sting
The sting is similar in structure to the egglaying organs. It is located in a chamber at the end of the abdomen, from which only the sharp pointed shaft is protruded.
The sting of the queen is longer than that of the worker, and more solidly attached within the sting chamber. The lancets are fewer and smaller barbs than the worker, but the poison glands is well developed and the poison sac is very large.
The Respiratory System
This consists of 10 breathing pores, (spiracles). Three are located on the thorax, and 7 on the abdomen.
Parts of the bee trachea, or air tubes, expand and collapse like lungs in response to abdominal wall movement. Two large sacs in the abdomen and smaller ones in the head and thorax, end in very very small breathing tubes ending in blind ends or in tissue cells. The ends of these are filled with liquid which absorb oxygen. The carbon monizide does not go into the tracheoles or very small breathing tubes, but into the surrounding blood, and is carried off by diffusion through the larger breathing tubes or soft body tissues.
The metabolism of the bee produces heat during muscular activity, as fanning of wings to warm the hive. But the bee body itself does not retain heat, but radiates off and out. Bees raise the temperature of their hives in winter by rapid vibration of the wing using the large muscles in the thorax.
The reproductive system
The organs on the honey bee are almost entirely internal.
In the drone the large sac is in the abdomen, put outside only at the time of mating. In the worker the organs for laying eggs are the sting.
The reproductive organs are only developed in the drone and queen. They are present in the worker bee, but small in size.
The mature reproductive cells of the male are called spermatozoa, and the female eggs or ova.
The Male Reproductive Organs are called testes in the drone. The Female Reproductive Organs are ovaries. Here the eggs develop for fertilization.
The queen bee mates with the drone in flight. She may mate with several drones in succession.
When the egg ready to be discharged the folicule opens, the egg passes down and portion of folicule shrivels is absorbed and the next one above takes its place. The ovarioli regains its length by growth at the upper end where new eggs just keep on forming.
Only eggs to develop into female larvae are fertilized. Eggs to reproduce males are not. Whether the fertilized egg becomes a worker or a queen depends on the feeding of the larva.
Food Tract or Alimentary Canal
This begins at the mouth, through the sucking pump, the esophagus, the neck thorax, the honey stomach, into the stomach proper, then the intestine, the rectum, and anus. (The honey stomach is a storage place, the rectum in a storage place for waste for the intestine, as the bee evacuates feces outside the hive only.)
Blood of the Honey Bee
The blood carries little oxygen. It's primary function is distribution of digested food material and transfer of carbon monixide and waste products. The blood is carried via a pulsating tubular blood vessel and by vibrating membranes. The bees blood color is pale amber. They have a single blood vessel, a long slender tube running from the middle of the abdomen to the head.
Nervous, and Sensory system
The honey bee, for an insect, has a very developed nerve and senory system. The bee uses the hairs on its body to determine touch or external pressure, by nerve receptors at the base of the hairs, especially the legs and antennae.
The honey bee has no known olfactory organs. However the antennae hairs allow the bee to smell or taste.
The honey bee olfactory structures in the antennae are called plate organs. It has been estimated that the worker bee has 5 to 6,000 plates on the antennae flagella, 2 to3,000 for the queen, and perhaps 30,000 on the drone.
The best sensory organ the bee has is the eyes. The honey bee has 3 simple eyes on the top of the head and 2 compound eyes, one on each side of the head. Their eyes have external lenses to focus light and sub-lens, light sensitive retina connected to nerves in the brain.
The simple eye has one lens for entire retina. The compound eye has many small lenses and retinas.
It is supposed that an insect "sees" with a compound eye as many points of light as there are divisions of the eye, and thus gets a mosiac picture, many small parts to make a whole. There may be several thousand separate light receptive parts of the eye. It is impossible to know what the insect brain final effect of this is.
It is known that insects respond quickly to movement of objects. Honeybees see color, shape, position of objects. They see most of the color spectrum.
The Central Nervous System of the honey bee consists of a brain in the head above the pharynx, and a ventral nerve cord extending from head to end of abdomen. The brain is mostly the sensory center, receiving news from the eyes and antennae, and transmits the nervous impulses to the motor centers of the ventral nerve cord.
We know that if the head is removed from the honey bee it is deprived of these stimuli as well as the ability to eat. But it still retains power through its motor centers. It can walk, fly and sting.
The Abdomen of the Honey Bee
This consists of the principal viscera of the insect, the stomach, intestines, and reproductive organs.
In bee larva there are 10 abdominal segments, in the adult bee 9. In the pupua stage one segment is transfered to the thorax.
The external features of the abdomen of interest are the was glands, the accompanying was pockets, the scent gland and the sting.
In the drone 2 pair of small plates are assoc with the genital apparatus.
After the wax forming period of the worker bee the glands degenerate and become flat layer of cells.
The Wings of the Honey Bee
These are flat, thin extensions of the body wall, strengthened by tubular thickenings called veins. There are two sets of wings one on each side of the thorax. In the honey bee the front wings are stronger and larger than the hind wings. The 2 wings of each set work together in unity in flight. The front wings have a straight fold along the bottom edge. The bottom wing has hooks on the top edge. To fly the front wings are drawn over the hind wings and the hooks automatically catch in the wings of the top wing.
Merely flapping the honey bees wings does not cause flight. Each wing while flapping twists, propeller-like. On the down swing the anterior portion of the wing turns forward, on the up swing the front part turns downward. Therefore when in motion, the tip of the vibrating wing of the insect (if held still) describes a figure eight.
These insects can steer, move forward, backward, sideways, up, down or remain stationary while hovering, in air, during flight.
The Legs
Three pairs of legs divided into six segments by joints. these legs move forward and backward. The "foot" of the insect has claws and a smooth surface to enab le them to cling to supportive surfaces.
Mostly their legs are used to wark or run but there are specialized parts of the legs of the honey bee.
1. On the forelegs of the honey bee are antenae cleaners. This is present in all three: workers,s drones and queen.
The brushes or stiff hairs on the inner surfaces of the front legs are used for cleaning pollen and other particles from the head, eyes and mouth parts.
2. The Middle leg has brushes for cleaning the thorax. The long spines at the end are used to loosen pellets of pollen from the pollen baskets of the hind legs and also for cleaning the wings and the small breathing pores or spiracles. The wax scales are removed from the wax pockets of the abdomen by means of the legs.
3. The hind legs differ from the other legs in their larger size and broad flattened form. These legs differ in size in the queen, worker & drone. It is only the worker that collects pollen and places it in the pollen baskets on these hind legs. The legs have long curved hairs. The space enclosed by these hairs is called the pollen basket. The worker bees carry pollen to the hive storing in in these conclave shaped hind legs. The pollen is collected from the body by the front and middle legs and deposited on the large flat brushes on the inner sufaces of the hind legs. Each of which is covered by 10 transverse rows of stiff spines projecting backwards.
The deep notch between the upper and middle leg transfers the pollen from the brushes to the baskets. In this notch are short stiff spines called a rake. They rake by rubbing the leg on one side against the other leg. These pollen baskets are also used to transfer propolis (resinous gum collection from trees and plants ). The pollen press is not used for this. The fore and middle legs place it directly in the baskets of the hind legs.