Page 29 - World of Animals - Issue #36

The honeybee

Salivary gland Compound eye
Many small eye units sit side by side and
Two ducts fuse and Brain all the images gathered by each eye are
open into the mouth, Around 10 times more dense combined to make a panoramic view of
secreting saliva that is than a mammalian brain and the environment. A bee’s eyes are best at
full of protein and amino around the size of a mustard detecting fast movement.
acids. Though it sounds seed, bees have some
unpleasant, bee saliva serious brainpower. They can
finds its way into both recognise different colours, Wings
the royal jelly and honey complete calculations and Antenna Two pairs of wings are
attached to each side of the
produced in the hive. even solve mazes. thorax, and the front wings
are longer than those at
Aorta the rear. The wings flap
around 230 times per
second, and if carrying a
Ocellus
heavy load the bee makes
each stroke longer without
changing the wing tempo.

Jointed legs
Each of the three body segments has
a pair of legs that are covered in hairs
that help pollen cling to the bee. The
front limbs help the bee taste, and
each leg is responsible for cleaning the
pollen-covered area in front of it.

Antenna

Pharynx

Designer babies
Queen bees actively choose which eggs to fertilise to
determine the gender of the offspring. Fertilised eggs
develop into female workers whereas unfertilised
eggs give rise to fertile male drones. These are
known as haploid in terms of their genetics, as they
essentially have DNA from only one parent, leaving
them with 16 chromosomes instead of the usual 32.

The honeybee family
Ganglia Every bee colony is made up of different morphs that each fill a vital role

Worker Drone Queen
A colony can have up to One per cent of a beehive There is only one queen at
80,000 of these infertile is drones. These are the the top of the bee family
females. These are the only males and they don’t and her main function
bees we see buzzing have a sting. Drones is to produce eggs. She
around flowerbeds congregate outside the stores sperm in her body
collecting nectar and hive rather than mate and then selectively
Wax workers Day 42 Foraging Day 50 Short lifespan Month 2 - 10 take on most of the hard within their colony. All the releases it over time.
Building new comb cells Travelling up to 2.5 kilometres (1.5 Bees will keep working continuously until work inside the hive. They sperm a bee produces is When mating with a
enables the colony to expand, miles) per day, bees learn to find their lives end, which can happen at any are the smallest form of genetically identical so drone, his reproductive
so wax production is an food and how to communicate stage, though queens can live for up to honeybee and make up direct siblings are clones organ detaches as he flies
important stage in a bee’s life. about the best places to visit. three years. 99 per cent of the colony. of one another. away.

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