Apis mellifera) is a social, flying insect with three components – queen, worker bees and drones. Workers possess stingers but drones do not.
Bees are fascinating creatures with many incredible facts. Some are general while others address specific areas of scientific study or historical relevance – they can even recognize faces!
1. They have five eyes
Eyesight is of vital importance for honey bees, and they possess incredible eyesight. Each honey bee possesses two compound eyes on either side of their heads as well as three simple eyes called ocelli on top that detect intensity and direction of sunlight, helping bees locate flowers while flying.
Compound eyes consist of thousands of individual facets called ommatidia that work together to form images sent directly to the brain for interpretation and processing. Each ommmatidium features multiple photoreceptors which work in concert to produce this final output; once at this stage it is then sent for interpretation and processing by specific wavelengths of light entering via its individual photoreceptors; each photoreceptor activated requires specific wavelengths of light entering via specific colored filters in order for it to function; individual photoreceptors need be activated using specific wavelengths; each ommatidia has special pigment granules which detect specific frequencies of light thus enabling bees to recognize flowers and plants as part of its visual sensory input system.
Honey bees rely heavily on their sense of sight for navigation, foraging and communication among their own species – no small task as they can fly up to 20 mph! Their bodies consist of two pairs of wings, six legs and a proboscis which helps them accomplish these tasks; all used for eating, drinking, wax working and biting activities.
Bees possess incredible vision that is absolutely vital to their survival. Their five individual “eyes” play an integral role in all these activities and more.
Bees possess two large compound eyes on either side of their head that can detect color, movement and polarized light. Their three ocelli act as photoreceptors to detect sunlight intensities and directions during flight as well as following dance instructions given by other bees. Furthermore, their eye lenses contain tiny hairs which help the bee keep its lenses clean as well as detect wind speeds; the hairs may help them return home safely during windy conditions.
2. They are the only insect that produces food eaten by man
Apis mellifera) is the only insect that consistently provides humans with food, such as honey. While other insects produce honey on an industrial scale, none come close to bees in terms of honey production.
On a single foraging trip, bees may visit 50 to 100 flowers and can collect up to 35% of their bodyweight in pollen. To gather its nourishment – pollen and nectar alike – bees fly up to 15 mph with wings beating 200 times per second (12,000 beats per minute).
Bees store their food in special cells made of beeswax. These cells also store pollen, eggs and occasionally even sperm for reproduction purposes. In winter months, bees gather into tight clusters for warmth while using honey they collected during warmer weather months to survive the chillier conditions.
Honey bees are social insects that live in hives in which three castes or divisions: workers (sterile females), drones (males) and the queen are housed. Workers build the hive, feed larvae to develop in it and tend to its queen while providing pollination services for over 130 agricultural crops in the US, including fruit, fiber, nuts and vegetables; this contributes to an annual benefit of $14 billion dollars from improved crop yield and quality.
Beehives contain infertile worker bees which, over time, form their own queen by feeding her royal jelly — composed of female reproductive organs from another worker bee — from within their colony. Over its lifespan, each bee will produce approximately one-twelfth teaspoon of honey.
Honey bees in the wild can travel up to six miles each day in search of food and nectar and pollen, needing only an ounce of honey per flight for fueling their journey and gathering enough nutrition for an entire hive. Each bee possesses mouth, nose and eyes allowing her to detect colors not visible to humans as well as ultraviolet wavelengths not detectable with human eyes; she also has 170 odorant receptors – 50 more than any dog can detect! – which allow her to detect its own hive, relatives as well as flowers by scent alone!
3. They have a stinger
The stinger is attached to a muscular sac filled with venom, a combination of protein chemicals that causes painful local reactions in vertebrates. When used, barbs on its tip rip into skin when being used, delivering this powerful dose. As soon as venom enters a person’s system it causes them to swell up, become itchy and possibly develop fever depending on their level of sensitivity to stings.
Honey bees’ head houses their stinger, antennae, and sensory organs; their six segment body includes the thorax, abdomen and genitals – with female reproductive organs found in the thorax and male ones found in the abdomen.
Honey bees come in two sexes; workers and queens. Both sexes are fertile, though only queens possess stingers. Queens can mate with drones but do not lay worker eggs themselves. Instead, queens store sperm in special structures which allows them to control whether their eggs fertilized; those that do become fertilized are either turned into drones or could become new queens themselves or workers themselves.
Honeybee worker bees communicate the location of food sources by “dancing.” With specific movements, worker bees can identify how far away and in what direction food sources lie; for instance, dancing in a circle indicates they’re within 50 meters while figure eight motion indicates food is 150 meters away – although distance can also be determined based on dance duration.
Honey bees communicate via dances as well as an intricate language of scent, visual and auditory signals that include scent, visual and auditory signals. Their brain is among the most complex in nature; their ventral nerve cord runs down their entire bodies connecting all of their internal systems together to ensure neural processing with all organs and systems within.
Apis mellifera, commonly known as the Western Honey Bee, is one of the most frequently kept species for honey production and pollination globally. Over time, various subspecies or races of this bee have evolved to adapt to specific regions or climates – some being kept by people for centuries! There are also native stingless bees which form large social hives as well as various solitary and wasp species which resemble honey bees but do not possess barbed stingers like honey bees do.
4. They have a brain the size of a poppy seed
Honey bee brains are around the size of poppy seeds, yet this small organ acts as the nerve center and controller of all its bodily functions. Remarkably, for such a tiny brain to control such an impressive array of bodily processes – vision, movement, smell recognition/odor recognition as well as memory storage of thousands of different nectars – it is remarkable!
Bees’ heads are characterized by large compound eyes with sensitive antennae, along with the brain and some important glands. Their thorax houses powerful flight wings for flight; here can be found their heart, lungs and ventral nerve cord. Their abdomen contains reproductive organs as well as reproductive and two stomachs for food storage as well as their stinger for pollen gathering; each minute their six visible wings beat 11,400 times making their characteristic buzzing sound that we associate with bees.
Bees are highly social insects, living in complex hives made of beeswax. A queen bee lays all the eggs while worker bees carry out various tasks required by supporting the colony. Male drones specialize in fertilizing queen cells but die after just one mating season.
A beehive’s primary food source is nectar, which is then processed by its stomach into honey. A single bee’s two stomachs serve for storage and processing while their antennae feature over 300 taste sensors to identify flowers with specific flavors or aromas not detectable by humans. Bees communicate among themselves using something known as the honey bee dance in which one bee waggles its front legs while moving its head up and down in order to alert its sisters about a good food source.
Honey bees can be seen active year-round except during the coldest winter months when they huddle together to keep warm. A single bee forager will typically visit 50 plants in one day, collecting approximately 1/12th teaspoon of honey and pollen.