ENVS 2210 Flashcards
Honey bees belong to what family of insects?
Apidae
Honey Bee Dance Language
movements through which bees communicate to other bees the location of flowers
Where to the earliest records of beekeeping come from?
ancient Egypt
What was the main characteristic of all traditional hives used until the 17th century?
fixed combs
Honey bees probably originated from what insect?
sphecoid wasp
What countries are the worlds largest producers of honey?
China and the USA
In today’s beekeeping world, Canada excels in what?
honey yield per colony
Where did honey bees probably evolve?
Africa or Asia
Where are the wax glands of a worker located?
on the abdomen
What is one of the functions of the exoskeleton of honey bees?
to provide structure and attachment for organs and muscles
Haemolymph is composed of what?
defense cells and plasma
What do bees use the secretion of hypopharyngeal glands for?
to feed the queen and larvae less than 3 days old
The Ventriculus
an organ where food is digested; located in the abdomen of the bee
What hormone regulates moulting during the developmental stages of honey bees?
Ecdysone
Ommatidia
structures contained within the bees compound eyes
What is the organ of honey bees that functions similarly to kidneys in mammals?
Malphigan tubes
The division of labour in a honey bee colony is also known as what?
polyethism
What are comb cells used for?
rearing brood, depositing eggs, storing nectar and pollen
What is the temperature in a brood rearing colony?
33-35*C
What influences the regulation of individual bee behavior in a hive?
stimuli near the bee, hormones in the bee, genetic predisposition of the bee, age of the bee
Why is a male bee a haploid individual?
because it carries a single set of chromosomes
Detractors of Von Frisch’s interpretation of the bee dance language thought that workers attracted by a dancing bee located food sources by relying mostly on what sense rather than information provided in the waggle part of the dance?
scent
What information is conveyed by bees performing the wagtail dance?
direction to food sources, distance to food source, quality of food source (nectar)
What information does the round dance convey?
food is 100m or closer
What do bees collect from flowers?
pollen and nectar
Queens produce pheromones that do what?
function as sexual attractant from drones
Queen honey bees mate ___ with ___ drones.
more than once; several drones
When is swarming of a honey bee colony most likely to occur?
during mid and late spring
How is the sex of individual bees determined?
by a gene with multiple alleles (up to 15)
Worker honey bees sharing the same father share genes in common by what percent?
75%
In honey bees, the subspecies taxonomic level is synonym with what?
race
Hybrid bees
bees resulting from crossing bee races or bee strains and that are meant to take advantage of heterosis
What is a difficulty of keeping Apis mellifera caucasica?
uses a lot of propolis
What type of Apis mellifera is particularly susceptible to American foulbrood and European foulbrood?
mellifera
Which type of Apis mellifera was introduced to Brazil in 1956, resulting in the eventual spread of Africanized bees throughout the Americas?
scutellata
What usually causes absconding?
lack of forage food or disturbance
What is the approximate expected range limit of Africanized bees in NA?
Southern USA
What are 2 of the functions of the hive brood chamber?
provide comb cells for the worker to rear larvae and for pollen storage
What is the function of the queen excluder?
keeps the queen restricted to the brood chamber
What is a smoker used for when managing a colony of bees?
to pacify the bees to facilitate the inspection and manipulation of the hive
What are important things to observe when inspecting a honey bee colony?
finding eggs and determining if there are any signs of brood disease, to look for queen cells and determine the cause of their presence, and to estimate food stores and bee population
When inspecting a hive you see the following: 2 or 3 queen cells, eggs in cells, and a weakly populated colony. What conclusion can you make based on this information?
about to supersede the queen
How can you reduce the amount of venom injected into your body if you are stung by a bee?
scratch the sting out using the hive tool or one of your fingernails
What is the function of a super?
a box with frames used in a hive to store honey
What are the 3 major components of honey?
water, fructose, and glucose
Why do queen cages contain “candy”?
helps feed the queen and accompanying workers, as well as works as a release mechanism in the process of requeening a colony
What is the main objective of fall management?
to ensure that colonies have adequate populations and food stores and are healthy
What is the “newspaper combining method” used for?
uniting 2 honey bee colonies
What is the melting point of beeswax?
63*C
What is beeswax?
a dense hydrocarbon
What is propolis, and why do bees use it?
a resin obtained by the bees from trees and plants, and used by the bees to seal cracks in the hive
Where in a plant is pollen produced?
anthers
How can you diagnose American foulbrood?
“ropy test”
What conditions will increase the susceptibility of bees to chalkbrood?
high humidity and weak colony population
What is fumagillan and why is it used?
an antibiotic used to control nosema disease
Deformed wings and sacbrood are caused by what?
viruses
How do you diagnose if a colony of bees is infested with tracheal mites?
microscope and PCR test
What defecates in honey?
Aethina tumida
What measures are suggested to reduce honey bee mortality cases caused by pesticides?
remove bee hives from agricultural crops sprayed with pesticides, arrange with grower to use non-hazardous pesticides to bees, avoid spraying on blooming plants
What is considered the most damaging pathogen of honey bees worldwide?
Paenibacillus larvae
Pollen Basket
modified tibia of the hind leg (of a worker)
Honey bees start clustering together inside the hive when the external temperature drops below what?
13*C
If a returning forager dances and waggles her abdomen while moving upward (vertically) in a straight line on the comb, that indicates that the food source she found is located in what direction with respect to the sun?
towards the suns position
What gland secretes royal jelly?
hypopharyngeal glands
What is one of the functions of the exoskeleton of honey bees?
to provide structure and attachment for organs and muscles
What do the bees use the secretion of hypopharyngeal glands for?
to feed the queen and larvae 3 days old or younger
Compund eyes of honey bees are composed by what?
thousands of facets called ommatidia
What is the purpose of patrolling?
behaviour that enables worker bees to perceive colony needs
What is moulting?
changing cuticle
Fertilized eggs can result in the development of what type(s) of honey bees?
workers and queens
The queen honey bee mates during what season?
all year
The thorax is composed of how many segments?
3
What does hymenoptera mean?
membrane winged
What is the proventriculus?
a valve regulating passage of food in the honey bee digestive tract
What constitutes the major source of protein in a honey bee diet?
nectar
The hind leg is specialized for what?
pollen packing
The queen has how many ovaries?
2
What hormone influences body differentiation?
juvenile hormone
What is the function of ocelli?
detect light intensity but do not generate visual images
Why are the body hairs of bees branched?
to trap pollen
How do the bees transform nectar into honey?
food-processing bees evaporate water from nectar, digest complex sugars, and add the enzyme invertase to nectar
What does supersedure refer to?
the replacement of a queen because she does not lay sufficient eggs and/or produces low amounts of queens substance
Where is sperm stored in the mature queen?
the spermatheca
What organ of a plant produces pollen?
anthers
What is the structure located on the hind legs of bees that allows them to walk on flat surfaces?
arolium
What does polyandrous mean?
mate with many partners
If you observe that workers in a colony are laying eggs, what conclusion can you draw?
the colony is probably hopelessly queenless
What do workers do in preparation for swarming?
gorge with honey, gain weight, and reduce their foraging activity
Why do beekeepers try to prevent their colonies from swarming?
because they are dangerous
What impact did the Africanized bees have in Mexico?
resulted in higher honey yields per colony and an increase in number of stinging incidents and fatalities of humans and animals
What subspecies of Apis mellifera evolved in former Yugoslavia and Austria (Balkans region)?
carnica
Why are Africanized bees more resistant to the parasitic mite Varroa destructor than European bees?
in part because the developmental time of Africanized bees is shorter than that of European bees, and Africanized bees groom themselves more efficiently
How long did European and African races of honey bees evolve in isolation from each other?
more than 70,000 years but less than 700,000
What are main management activities performed during early spring in overwintered colonies?
feeding them with sugar syrup, and expanding their brood nest by reversing hive bodies
Mandibular glands of a queen bee produce what?
“queen’s substance”
Africanized bees in the Americas are descendants of what races?
Apis mellifera scutellata and several races of European honey bees
What can a larva heterozygotic at the sex locus develop into?
worker bee or queen bee
Why do colonies usually swarm?
food resources are abundant in the field and the broodnest of the colony is congested and the colony is overpopulated
How are drones related in a single queen colony?
brothers
What happens when 2 virgin queens emerge simultaneously?
they fight until one of them is dead
Where is the best place to stand when opening a hive to inspect it?
at the back or side
How can you prevent colonies from swarming?
provide them with frames containing empty drawn comb for the queen to lay eggs, destroy queen cells if observed, and remove entrance reducers from hives
Where did Apis mellifera ligustica originate?
Northern Italy
What does the term subfamily refer to?
all of the worker offspring from a single father
How many sex alleles can be expressed in the sperm of a drone and in the eggs of a queen?
one in the sperm of a drone, and two in the eggs of a queen
Beekeeping
the art of providing honey bees a dwelling (hive) and manage them according to season
How long ago did humans hunt honey bee colonies to steal their honey?
9-10 thousand years ago
How many pairs of legs do honey bees have?
3
The queen produces pheromones that do what?
help maintain colony cohesion, stimulate food foraging, and regulate colony reproduction
What are pheromones?
chemical messages
Drones develop from what kind of eggs?
unfertilized
What is the function of drones?
to mate with virgin queens in the spring
Honey bees are what kind of insects, and why?
holometabolous because they pass through complete metamorphosis
What are the 4 developmental stages of honey bees?
egg (brood), larvae, pupa, adult
What do honey bee eggs contain?
the nucleus and the yolk (nutritive materials)
Cleavage cells eventually become what?
the blastoderm
How long does it take for an embryo to fully develop into larva?
3 days
During the larva stage, individuals pass through how many instars or substages?
5
After the first 3 days, bees that will become workers or drones are fed what?
bee’s bread
What is the most important factore influencing whether a larva becomes a queen or a worker?
difference in diet (royal jelly vs bee’s bread)
What controls the metamorphis process?
hormones
What is the juvenile hormone responsible for?
influences cell division and body differentiation
morphological castes
3 types of colony members (queen, worker, drone)
Exoskeleton is composed of what, and why?
composed of hardened plates connected by membranes to provide insect with structure and movement
The head contains what organ?
sensory and digestive structures (eyes, antennae, and mouthparts)
What are the 2 types of eyes bees have?
ocelli and compound eyes
Ocelli
have simple lenses, detect light intensity, and may serve for orientation during flight, do not generate images
Compound eyes
arrays of thousands of single eyes (ommatidia) each with its own fixed lens looking in a different direction
Bee’s can’t see what colour?
red
The antennae are composed of how many segments?
12
The antennae contain what organs, and what are their functions?
sense organs , the sensilla (plates, pits, and hair) used to detect odours, CO2, humidity, temperature, and airflow
What organ is inside the antennae pedistal?
Johnston organ (bee’s ear)
What are the mandibles used for?
to cut, shape, groom, and fight
What are the proboscis?
tube-like structures for the ingestion of liquids (5-7 mm long)
What are the segments of the thorax?
prothorax, mesothorax, and metathorax, plus the propodeum (1st abdominal structure)
What kind of structures are contained in the thorax?
structures for locomotion and for pollen transport
How many pairs of wings and legs are on the thorax?
3 pairs of legs on each segment, 2 pairs of wings on the last 2 segments
The legs are composed of what parts?
coxa (jip), trocanter (femur head), femur, tibia, and tarsus
Where is the antennae cleaner located?
fore legs
What does the antennae cleaner look like?
a notch with comb like hairs
What are the hind legs specialized for?
pollen or propolis packing
