Body Structure Of Bees – The Internal & External
Anatomy
Honey bees are sophisticated and
wonderful creatures that exist in our surroundings. These flying insects are
found on every continent in the earth except for Antarctica. Though being very
small in size, these creatures are perfectly adapted to their environment.
All kinds of bees live on
the nectar and pollen. As it is estimated that 1/3rd of the human
food supply depends on the insects\' pollination, honey bees play the most vital
role in this process. Without these little creatures, pollination becomes extremely
difficult and time-consuming too.
All of us can describe or
draw a basic bee with black & yellow stripes, wings, and 3-body parts. But
in actuality, the anatomy of the bee has spectacular efficiency. To survive,
thrive, and perform their work effectively in this world, honey bees have
evolved with this captivating anatomy and explicit adaptations. While studying
about the honey bee anatomy, one can find that every element has a well- defined purpose. Let\'s now understand more about the beautiful makeup of the honeybee.
The Honey Bee body is majorly divided into three
sections, namely –
·
Head
·
Thorax
·
Abdomen
The head features
antennae, eyes, mandibles, and a tiny brain. Thorax makes the base for the legs
and wings, whereas the abdomen comprises wax glands, reproductive organs, and
the stinger. These three major sections together form the honeybee\'s external skeleton,
known as an exoskeleton. These little creatures\' external body is largely
covered by a layer of hair assisting them in gathering the pollen and
regulating their body temperature.
Though we all are
generally aware of the bees\' external anatomy, the bees\' internal structure is
much complex to understand.
Digestive
System:
The mouth is the most
important part of the honeybees\' digestive system. Shaped in a tubular form, it
is situated in the front portion of the head. The labrum and upper lip cover their
jaws, and different bees have different mandible parts. Only the worker bees
have narrower jaws in the central part than in the base. The spoon-shaped jaws
are used to collect pollen from the flowers and are also used to soften and
shape wax sheets with saliva. These jaws build cells and honeycombs and help in
removing foreign elements from the hives.
Bees have a long, hairy,
and grooved tongue and use a specialized structure, the proboscis, while taking
liquid foods. Bees introduce the proboscis in the liquid by extending it and
absorb the liquid by doing forward and backward movements.
Food enters the digestive
tract through the mouth and goes down the esophagus and into the crop. The
esophagus is basically a cylinder that runs from the mouth in the head, through
the chest, and into the mid-region crop. The crop, or honey stomach as it is called now and again by beekeepers, is a
circularly formed organ in the abdomen that fills in as a site for food
stockpiling, as a capacity place for nectar honey bees gather from blossoms and
fly back to the hive, or as an underlying site for the processing of food in
the honey bee. The crop can grow essentially when it is full of honey or
nectar, to such an extent that the abdomen swells. A valve called the Proventriculus is located at the end of
the crop, which crushes food particles (such as pollen) and sifts pollen out of
the stomach contents. Food goes through the Proventricular valve and into the
bee’s Ventriculus.
Respiratory
System:
A tracheal system does
gas exchange in honeybees as they do not have any specific respiratory organ.
This tracheal system consists of spiracles, tracheas, and air sacs.
The spiracles are outside
gaps that are utilized for ventilation. Both in hatchlings and adults, there
are 10 sets and every one of them except the second — which is exceptionally
little—has shutting valves.
The valve of the primary
spiracle doesn\'t close totally; honey bees cure this with hairs. This vermin
enters particularly in new conceived or youthful honey bees, crossing the hair
obstruction — that in these honey bees isn\'t solidified—. The causative
operator of septicemia likewise enters through this spiracle.
Tracheas are conduits
that discuss spiracles with the air sacs. This is the place where Acarapis
Woodi prevails. This parasite benefits from hemolymph and acquires it by
puncturing the windpipe. This causes cycles of melanization on it.
The principle tracheas
reach out to the sides of the body and structure huge widening on the
midsection sides. Honey bees need lungs like well-evolved creatures; oxygen is
legitimately conveyed to all pieces of the body by a progression of cylinders
called windpipes.
Honey bees\' breathing is
practically reverse to that of other vertebrates. Rather than coordinating the
blood towards the air — that is, towards the lungs — air is shipped towards the
blood. Honey bees have yellow colored blood.
Air sacs (or tracheal
sacs) are established by a tracheal broadening and are sporadically conveyed by
the body. They breakdown due to the weight and assume a fundamental function in
tracheal ventilation.
Circulatory
System:
The circulatory
arrangement of bumblebees is made out of a long cylinder that runs all through
their body. It is shut at the stomach end and opened in the head. It extends
along the digestive tract.
Its principal work is the
transportation of supplements and expulsion of waste. Its main function is the
transport of nutrients and removal of waste. Its parts are; hemolymph, ventral
and dorsal stomachs, heart, aorta, and antennae vesicles.
The hemolymph is a
compound fluid that contains cells called lymphocytes. These cells have a
phagocytic limit, do their own developments, and flow openly through the body
each time the heart drives it to themind.
The heart of bees is
shaped by ventricles combined by valves called Ostia. Ostiolar chambers are
joined by valves that open just forward; this permits hemolymph progression,
yet not its force. The dorsal and ventral diaphragms are accountable for
circulation in the abdomen and help the blood to get back from the chest.
Antennae vesicles drive blood to the antennae.
Nervous System:
Hatchlings have a mind
with a suboesophageal ganglion, just as eleven ganglia, longitudinal corners
shaped by sets of twin nerves. Grown-up honey bees have a bigger cerebrum with
a suboesophageal ganglion, just as seven ganglia, which structure a ventral
string that runs underneath the gastrointestinal parcel.
Thorax has two thoracic
ganglia. The nerves that originate from the first of them are coordinated to
the main pair of legs. The subsequent ganglion nerves are coordinated towards
the flight muscles and the second and third combines of legs.
In the midsection, five
other ganglia control digestion tracts and breathing organs capacities. The
last two, fairly bigger than the others, control the reproductive organs and
the stinger. As an outcome of this sensory system conveyance, every one of the
three pieces of honey bee’s body (head, chest, and mid- region) works pretty
much autonomously. This can be well understood by cutting the head of the bees.
We will see that the remainder of the body can keep moving, starting with one
section, then onto the next, moving the wings and proceed with their
fundamental capacities for quite a while, yet hopelessly passing on at long
last. Working drones\' cerebrum is a lot bigger than that of the automatons
disregarding being the top of the last ones more noteworthy.
Excretory System:
It is shaped by the
malpyghian tubules, eliminating waste substances from blood and empties them
into the front digestive system to kill them with defecation. These substances
are predominantly nitrogen subordinates. It is the objective of Malpighamoeba
mellificae.
Reproductive System:
In queen bees, it is
comprised of two pear-shaped ovaries. These are constituted by long tubes
called ovarioles, which end in little tips. These are established by long
cylinders called ovarioles, which end in little tips. These tips are embedded
close to the ventral side of the heart. Ovarioles are brimming with ovules
(oocytes) in various phases of development.
Toward the finish of the
ovary, it is additionally the chorion. A sovereign can lay up to 3,000 eggs
every day, even though it is typical for them to put up to 1500. In a year, a
sovereign can lay up to 2 00,000 eggs.
Ovaries end in discrete
oviducts, which participate in a typical conductor or center oviduct. At its
base, it speaks with the spermatheca, which is the place the spermatozoa of
copulas are aggregated until their utilization.
This framework proceeds
with the vagina, which closes at the vaginal opening, ensured by an overlap. At
that stature, there are two sidelong packs and the bursa copulatrix.
Drones\' reproductive
system is comprised of two testicles, two vasa deferentia, two original
vesicles, two bodily fluid organs, an ejaculatory channel, and a copulatory
organ. Testicles form the testicular cylinders inside which spermatozoa are created.
As the drones develop, testicles lose size until they get diminished to 1/3 of
their unique size(pre-birth).
The original vesicles
produce emissions that go with spermatozoa, and inside them, they complete the
process of developing. Mucous glands speak with the original vesicles and the
ejaculatory channel. They produce a substance that hardens in contact with air
and water, however not with fundamental discharges.
The ejaculatory conduit
communicates the bodily fluid organs with the copulatory organ. When it gets
evaginated, it is presented in the sovereign\'s bursa copulatrix, and it is
disengaged from the drone once semen is presented, working as a stopper.
Drones\' muscular strength
is created. This is significant from the physiological perspective so that at
the point of intercourse, the endophallus eversion can be delivered rapidly.
Glandular System:
An organ is a specific
natural development or a lot of cells separated from the epithelial tissue.
Organs are responsible for expounding, emitting, and discharging certain
substances that solely mediate in certain physiological cycles.
1. Hypopharyngeal
Glands–
These spherical-shaped
glands are located in the head of the worker bees. In queen bees, they are
simple, and in drones, they don\'t exist. Its emitting cells are assembled in
bunches and pour their discharge in the lower part of the larynx through a focal
pipe. Here is the Sacbrood Virus.
Their emission\'s item
fills in as nourishment for hatchlings in their initial three days of everyday
routine and for queens all through their life. When honey bees develop, these
glands lose their usefulness, their volume diminishes, and they begin creating
the invertase, important to cause the cleavage of nectar sugars.
2. Salivary Glands–
These glands are
available in the head and thorax. The two regular conduits pour spit saliva on
the two sides of the tongue. Salivation weakens nectar and break down sugar
gems. It contains proteins that are answerable for the change of nectar and
honeydew in nectar. Intense loss of motion infections is situated in the
thoracic organs.
3. Mandibular Glands–
These glands are placed
on the head of the worker bees and queens. In working bees, it creates a small
amount of the regal jam and in queens delivers a pheromone that assumes a
significant part in the province\'s social attachment.
4. Nassanov Gland–
The Nassanov organ is
odoriferous, situated in the dorsal aspect of the midsection, in the seventh
abdominal tergite\'s foremost substance. This organ is possibly observed when
honey bees expand their midsection and adjust the \"call\" position
with the abdomen upwards and beating their wings. At that point, it radiates a
trademark smell that distinguishes and pulls in to all the honey bees of a
similar province that can be bewildered.
5. Wax Glands–
In the anterior part of
the sternites of fragments, four to seven are found the wax organs — four sets,
one for each section—. In each sternite, there are two light-shaded territories
called \"wax reflects\" that convey pores where the oily emission of
the wax organs, situated in each sternite\'s internal aspect, comes out.
Honey bees convey the
scales or plates of wax to their mouth with the second pair of legs. At that
point, they utilize their jaws to work and shape them to form the brushes
later. The scales have an unpredictable pentagon shape and are little, each
weighing 0.0008 g (approx 0.00003 oz). A measure of around 1,250,000 drops is
needed to create 1 kg of wax.
Just honey bees have wax
organs. They start to work roughly on day 12 of their life and end on day 20
when they become foragers.
To make wax honey, bees
need to devour a great deal of dust and nectar. When hives are free, honey bees
devour around 15 kg of nectar and dust to deliver 1 kg of wax. Actually, when
hives are solid, they expend just around 10 kg of nectar and dust.
6. Venom Glands–
These glands are present
both in the worker and the queen bees, yet queens have fundamentally bigger
organs than the workers and produce more venom. Queens use this toxin during
battles with other rival queens, which happens when the image (develop grown-up
stage) rises, while fertilized queens infrequently use toxin. Worker honey bees
first use their venom for defense against predators and intruders when they
attain about 14 days. The protein substance of venom organs from the worker and
queen bees falls after the principal seven day stretch of grown-up life. Queen
bee toxin organs lose 90% and workers half of their protein. This protein
misfortune goes before the ultra-structural changes in the morphology of the
venom organ secretor cells.
Several internal & external anatomical features of honey bee can be studied. Knowing about honey bee life structures is valuable for beekeepers since it causes one to understand the fundamental system that helps honey bee, and at last state, the ecosystem and our life.