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The Honey Bee

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There are 3 types, or castes, of honey bees.

Queen

Drone

Worker

Photo Credit USGS

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A honey bee has 3 main body regions — head, thorax, and abdomen.

Head

thorax

Abdomen

Thorax

Photo Credit USGS

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What do you NOTICE about the worker bee’s head?

Photo credit USGS

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The worker bee’s head contains 2 compound eyes, 2 antennae, a pair of mandibles, and the proboscis.

Photo credit USGS

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The two compound eyes are made up of thousands of tiny lenses that allow the bee to see ultraviolet light, which is invisible to the human eye.

Photo Credit USGS

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The simple eyes each have a thick lens that can sense changes in brightness. A honey bee has three simple eyes on top of its head, but only one can be seen here.

Photo Credit USGS

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The honey bee’s antennae are movable feelers that detect smells and movement.

Photo credit USGS

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The proboscis is a straw-like tongue used to suck nectar or honey.

Photo Credit Dalantech

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Mandibles are a pair of jaw-like structures used to knead wax, chew honey and pollen, and bite tiny invaders when defending the hive.

Photo credit USGS

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What do you NOTICE about the honeybee’s thorax or middle region?

Photo credit USGS

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The thorax is the honey bee’s middle region containing the flight muscles, 4 wings, and 6 legs.

Photo credit USGS

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A honey bee has 2 hind wings and 2 forewings. Its wings beat 250 times a second allowing the bee to fly at speeds of up to 15 miles per hour.

Photo Credit USGS

Forewing

Hind Wing

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A honey bee has 3 pairs of segmented legs used for walking, dusting their antennae, brushing pollen off body hairs, and storing pollen.

Photo Credit USGS

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What do you think this could be? Have you ever seen a bee with this?

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The hind legs of a worker bee contain a pollen basket–a collection of hairs where pollen is stored for transport.

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What do you NOTICE about the bee’s abdomen (the honey bee’s back region?)

Photo Credit USGS

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The abdomen is the honey bee’s rear region that contains organs for digestion, reproduction, and respiration as well as the worker and queen bees’ stingers and the worker’s wax glands.

Photo Credit USGS

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The stinger is only found in female honey bees. A worker bee’s barbed stinger is used for defense. A queen bee’s smooth stinger is used for eliminating rival queens.

Photo Credit Max Westby

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The honey sac is an internal, stomach-like organ where nectar is stored.

Photo Credit USGS

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Wax glands are located on the underside of the worker bee’s abdomen. The glands for

m and excrete wax.

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A honey bee has 4 distinct life stages — egg, larva, pupa, and adult. The queen lays each egg into a different cell of the honeycomb.

WHAT ARE SOME HUMAN LIFE STAGES? (take any answers - for your reference, but not to teach unless you feel the need: Embryo, Fetus, Infant, Toddler, Child, Puberty, Adolescence, Young Adult, Middle-aged Adult, Senior Adult (Old Age) https://med.libretexts.org/Courses/American_Public_University/APUS%3A_An_Introduction_to_Nutrition_(Byerley)/Text/12%3A_Maternal_Infant_Childhood_and_Adolescent_Nutrition/12.02%3A_The_Human_Life_Cycle.)

Pregnancy. The development of a zygote into an embryo and then into a fetus in preparation for childbirth.
Infancy. The earliest part of childhood. It is the period from birth through age one.
Toddler years. Occur during ages two and three and are the end of early childhood.
Childhood. Takes place from ages four to eight.
Puberty. The period from ages nine to thirteen, which is the beginning of adolescence.
Older adolescence. The stage that takes place between ages fourteen and eighteen.
Adulthood. The period from adolescence to the end of life and begins at age nineteen.
Middle age. The period of adulthood that stretches from age thirty-one to fifty.
Senior years, or old age. Extend from age fifty-one until the end of life.

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After 3 days, the egg hatches, and a worm-like creature, called a larva, crawls out. Worker bees feed the larva royal jelly. As it grows, the larva sheds its skin 4-5 times. On day 9, the larva spins itself into a cocoon, and a worker bee seals the cocoon into the cell with wax.

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Inside the cocoon, the larva transforms into a pupa, developing eyes, legs, and wings.

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When the bee is fully grown, it chews its way out of the cell and emerges as an adult.

Photo Credit Max Westby