IIB Flashcards
Wing beat frequency of bee
200 cycles/second
Thoracic flight temperature
46 degrees Celsius
Average flight speed of worker bee
24 km/hour
Average flight speed with full nectar loads
6.5 m/sec / 23.4 km/hr
Unloaded worker bees average flight
7.5 m/sec / 27 km/hr
Bees can no longer fly if
Blood sugar falls below 1%
Africanized bees during swarm flights
30 mg of honey (w 20 mg sugars) and fly 60 km
The bee’s foreleg
Clean its antennae
The bee’s mid-leg
Helps with walking, for packing loads of pollen (sometimes propolis) into pollen baskets
A sticky resinous substance from buds of trees and use to seal up cracks of hive; bee glue
Propolis
The bee’s hind legs
Contain special combs and pollen press (worker bee); to brush, collect, pack, and carry back into the hive
Tiny holes along the sides of bee’s thorax and abdomen, how a bee breathes
Spiracles
Which hole does the tracheal mites gain access to the trachea?
First hole in the thorax
These are attached to the spiracles
Trachea (breathing tubes)
How many abdominal segments?
10 abdominal segments
This is the first abdominal segment
Propodeum
They are hidden inside the 7th segment
8th (found next to the 7th), 9th, and 10th segment
Two additional segments are found in the ?
Worker bee (stinger), Queen and Drone (reproductive organs)
These two additional segments are ?
Highly reduced, appear internally as small soft plates
A highly modified ovipositor evolved for its defensive function
Bee sting
The large basal structure of bee stinger (tapered, protruded sharp-pointe shaft)
Bulb of stylet
A solid structure shaft with three separable pieces
One above the stylet, two below the lancets
Why do bees die after stinging?
Massive abdominal rupture
The stinger left in the skin continues to pump venom for ?
30 - 60 seconds
There is lyses of blood and mast cells, also releases histamine and serotonin (mast cells), and depression of blood pressure and respiration, 50 dry weight % in venom
Melittin
Cell lyses, there is pain, toxicity; also synergistic with mellitin; 12 dry weight % in venom
Phospholipase A
Hydrolyzes connective tissue (spreading factor - opens up passages for other components), non toxic; <3 dry weight % in venom
Hyaluronidase
Involved in allergic reaction; <1 dry weight % in venom
Acid phosphatase
There is itching, pain; amount of venom is much lower than toxic levels or amount released by mast cells; <1 dry weight % in venom
Histamine
Wax production is used for ?
Comb construction
How is beeswax produced?
By modified epidermal cells (ventral on 4th - 7th abdominal segments); metabolizing honey in fat cells associated with the wax glands
8.4 kg of honey produces 991,000 wax scales and makes up ?
1 kg or 2.2 lb of wax
Workers need to eat pollen during ? to secrete wax later on
First 5 - 6 days of their life
Chemical composition of beeswax
Hydrocarbons (14%)
Monoesters (35%)
Diesters (14%)
Hydroxy Polyesters (8%)
Free Acids (12%)
A gland found beneath the tergite of the last abdominal segments (7th)
Nasanov / Scent gland
Nasanov gland is used for ?
Orientation at the nest entrance, swarm clustering, water collection sites, possibly at flowers
7 chemicals that make up Nasanov scent
Geraniol, Nerolic acid, Geranic acid (7), Citral, (Z) - citral, (E, E) Famsol, and Nerol
An enzyme for processing floral nectars into honey and oxidizes glucose into acid
Invertase
A brood food produced by the mandibular glands
10-hydroxy-2-decenoic acid
It opens at the posterior end into the crop
Esophagus
It is an expandable bag that holds honey ingested
Honey Stomach / Crop
It is found at the end of crop and prevents most liquid contents from passing through ventriculus or midgut
Proventriculus valve
It is where the solid food is digested and nutrients are absorbed
Ventriculus / Midgut
It absorbs nitrogenous wastes from blood and pass to intestines for excretion
Malphigian tubules
The bee’s circulatory system consists of ?
One dorsal heart and Aorta
The blood in the bee’s body cavity does what ?
The cells float freely in blood instead of receiving blood through vessels
The one-way valves where blood passes through after entering the heart (single blood vessel in abdominal part)
Ostia
They assist in pumping blood to extremities (basis of legs and wings)
Antennal vesicles
The function of circulatory system consists of:
Transporting food from midgut to body cells
Removing waste material from cells and return to excretory organs
Lubricating body movements
Provide defense against pathogens using blood cells
Do bees have lungs?
No, but they use a system of tubes for breathing
This is the system of breathing tubes
Tracheae
The tracheae are connected by a series of holes in the cuticle called ?
Spiracles
When the bee is inactive, gas exchange operate simply by ?
Diffusion
How do bees cope in increased activity for gas exchange?
Pump their abdomens using expanded sacs of trachea as bellows
What is the nervous system of bees composed of?
Brain and seven ganglia
A queen bee has a well-developed?
Spermatheca and Vagina
