Apis Mellifera: The Life of the Western Honey Bee Essay

Who would think that an insect slight than an inch big could be of so much importance to the human society? Through come forward the storey of man agreeable, the Western Honey Bee has proven to be of many white plagues to the human society. The study of the dear bee has shown the true elaborateness and efficiency of their village. Each member of the resolution works together in a nearly unflawed environment of productivity. For these reasons, and many much, the Western sweeten bee has proven itself to be one of the most fascinating and reclaimable insects there has ever been.In order to be able to understand the love life sentence bee and its settlement, one mustiness first learn ab unwrap the bees physical make-up. Similar to a typical insect, the Western making love bee back end be divided into three major sections these sections argon the head, breast, and abdomen. The first section, the head, is a actu in ally confused part of the body. The head contains the m idriffs, antennae, and the m give awayhparts. The eye atomic number 18 an intriguing feature, seeing as the lamb bee has both unlike types of eyes. The first type is the two compound eyes. The compound eyes are much of the typical kind of eyes.These eyes keister sense light and color, though the bees spectrum of color varies close to from the human eyes spectrum. The love bee excessively has three simple eyes, which are called ocelli. The only known function that these eyes serve is to sense the intensity of the light (Dade 65). The two antennae also play a crucial usance in the life of the bee. The antennae are the nose of the sexual love bee, allowing it to sense odors. Along with sensing odors, the antennae advocate in their ability to taste. The mouthparts of the honey bee contain the mandibles and proboscis.The mandibles are jaws that help in chewing, grooming, and several other functions. The proboscis is sympathetic to the human tongue in the fact that its functi on is to lick and suck up nectar into the honey bees mouth. The next section of the bee, the thorax, contains the legs and fly. These both contribute to the mobility of the bee. in that respect are six legs on a honey bee which come in three pairs. The legs perform multiple functions, among these being that they aid in mobility, grooming, and storing pollen. The honey bee possesses two pairs of go, the front wings and the posterior wings.These wings provide for very efficient flight, allowing the bee to beat its wings at an astounding rate of 200 times per second they have also been known to rifle up to 60 kilometers on one meal (Winston 26-29). The third and final section of the bee is the abdomen. The most well-known(a) and feared function of the bee, the flummoxer, is found in the abdomen. Large portions of the bees digestive, excretory, circulatory, and respiratory systems are also found in the abdomen. The internal systems of the honey bee are as fascinating as its physic al qualities.Much like a human, the honey bee also has a digestive system. When a bee consumes food, it travels with its esophagus to its mold. While in the crop the food can be regurgitated and transferred to another bee. afterwards passing through the crop, the food travels to the midgut. This is where the digestion and absorption of nutrients takes sharpen in the bee. Then the digested food is either excreted through the rectum or used for energy. The circulatory and respiratory systems of the honey bee are fairly simple with the dorsal heart and aorta being the main contributors in blood circulation. conflicting a human, the bee does not have veins and arteries for the blood to travel through. Instead, the blood fills the body cavity and enters the heart through the ostia. by and by passing through the ostia and heart, the blood travels to the head. The honey bee respiratory system also varies a grand deal from the humans. The honey bee breathes through holes called spirac les. These spiracles are connected to the tracheae which are tubes that transport the oxygen in and the carbon dioxide out of the bee. The honey bees ability to fly is a very of the essence(p) and kindle ability.As mentioned previously, the honey bee has 4 wings, a pair of frontal wings and a pair of hind wings which are located on the thorax. There are two muscle systems that move the wings, the pose and verifying muscles. The direct muscles are attached directly to the bases of the wings, whereas the indirect muscles are located in the thorax but are not attached to the wing bases. The indirect flight muscles are much bigger than the direct flight muscles and likewise play a greater role in the honey bees flight. The indirect muscles control the up-and-down wing strokes as well as the back and forth strokes.There are two sections of the indirect muscles, the vertical muscles and the longitudinal muscles. There is a pair of each of these two types of indirect muscles. The verti cal and longitudinal muscles expand alternately this causes the wing to flap, providing the motion for flight. This happens at an extremely quick pace, which allows the wings to beat at 200 beats per second. Not only can it do this quickly, but it can do it efficiently. The bee can travel for very long periods on incisively one meal. Honey bees blend on just three items these are nectar, pollen, and water.Nectar provides carbohydrates for the bees, while the pollen provides proteins. Most of the nectar and pollen that the bees collect though is used in the production of honey. In a summer, a typical honey bee colony of most 30,000 bees consumes about 20kg of pollen (Seeley 82). If you multiply out the distance required for an average travel times the 1. 3 trillion foraging trips that it would require to harvest 20kg of pollen, then it would be equivalent to traveling to the moon and back everyplace seven times. The water, too, aids in the production of honey, counting for 18% of the make-up of honey (Dade 43).Though it is belike not surprising because they are called honey bees, the bees number one food intake is honey. The bees put out a lot of energy gathering all of their pollen and nectar this requires them to eat a large measure in order to have enough energy to complete all of their honey production. Western honey bees often build their hives in forest tree branches. Studies have shown that the scouts are very fussy when searching for a future nest site. The scouts tend to choose a nest location that is not too far from their current location, yet they prefer nests that are not too close either.Scouts come out to prefer a nest site that has an entrance facing south because the south tends to receive more sunlight. They also desire for the nest site to be positioned roughly three or four meters preceding(prenominal) the ground (Seeley 73). Once a location is decided upon by the colony, the comb construction is started immediately. The workers i n the colony start to mass incur beeswax for the construction of the comb. In order to be able to produce the wax, worker bees eat pollen for the first week that they are alive. The workers really focus on building the raw(a) nest since virtually nothing can happen in the colony without the comb.Their embarrassing work pays absent they can accomplish over 90% of the comb building in merely 45 geezerhood or even less. The bees have an intricate design for the honey comb. They form hexagonal shaped cells in the comb, maximizing the amount possible. These cells come in three different sizes. The smaller size is for the worker freaks, the slightly larger size is for the drone eggs, and the largest size is saved for the fagot regnant eggs. However, there are less than 20 cells for the queen mole rat regnants. The left over cells that are not being used for the bringing up of the bees are put into use as storage cells.This is where honey is stored after it is formed. There are three different types of members of a honey bee colony. There are workers, drones, and the queen. All three of these play a vital role in charge the colony working in harmony. The first of these three is the worker bee. Worker bees are fe virile, yet they neer become fully sexually developed like the queen does. The worker bees, as one can imagine, provide the work force of the colony. They are the scavengers and collectors of pollen and nectar. Worker bees also take part in the reproduction process by laying unfertilized eggs that allow for hatch as drones.The average life span of a worker bee varies depending on the season. If born during the spring or summer, their life span is just a month on average. However, if born during the winter then they can live for up to fractional of a year (Erickson, Carlson, and Garment 100). The second type in the honey bee colony is the drone. Drones are fatherless, male bees that have hatched from unfertilized eggs. As a result of having no f ather, the drones only have 16 chromo some(prenominal)s instead of the normal 32 that worker and queen bees have.The lifetime of a drone is just two months during the summer, which is the only time that they are present n a colony. When the summer is over, the drones are kicked out of the colony. In the end, this causes them to die of starvation. The only real purpose that the drones serve in the colony is to mate with the queen bee. After conjugation with the queen bee, the drone is killed from the process. The third and final type of bee in the honey bee colony is the queen bee. The queen bee comes from fertilized eggs and is the only member of the honey bee colony to achieve full sexual maturity. Also, the queen bee has the longest lifespan by far in the colony. She can live up to five eld however, a lifespan of one to two years is more common.The mortality rate of the queen is sort of high with 60 percent of the queens dying within the first year (Erickson, Carlson, and Garmen t 11). The queen varies greatly from the other members of the colony. She has a smaller brain and eyes, yet a larger body. She is designed to produce thousands of eggs, and can even lay more than 2000 eggs per day. Though there are often multiple queens that are birthed at a time, there is only one reigning queen of the colony at one time. The first queen to hatch out of her cell seeks out and destroys the other queen larvae before they can develop fully.Throughout her life, the queen is catered to. The workers groom and feed the queen. The queen is the most important member of the colony she is responsible for producing all other members of the colony. The method of reproduction in the honey bee colony is very unique. The queen bee is responsible for essentially all of the reproduction in the colony. Just five years after reaching adulthood, the queen bee will go out on what are called mating flights. On a mating flight the queen will fly out from the nest, followed by several dro nes.A drone will catch up to the queen bee and begin mating with her while in flight. After the queen bee has received the sperm from the drone, she will release the drone and he will fall to his death. The mating process kills the drones. The queen will mate with six to eighteen drones, or until she has enough sperm for her egg laying. Following the mating process, the queens fertile ovaries will enlarge this allows for the queen to be more efficient with her egg laying.The queen can produce two to three thousand eggs per day, which is over two to three times her body weight. If the queen wishes to produce a drone, hen all she has to do is withhold the semen from the egg. The queen will lay her eggs in the cell of the comb where they will stay, being taken care of by the worker bees, until they hatch. Along with the queen, worker bees can produce drones. The workers account for a very small portion of the eggs though. The most notorious feature of the honey bee is by far their abil ity to sting. Nearly everyone has experienced the sharp pain of a bee sting at some point in their life. The worker bees and queen bee are capable of stinging the drones cannot sting since they do not have a stinger.When a worker bee stings, their barbed stinger and poison sac are ripped out of the bee and the bee ends up dying. However, the queen bee does not have a barbed stinger, her stinger is smoother, and therefore she can sting multiple times without endangering her health. Honey bees, of course, have enemies and threats to their colony. These enemies vary in sizes and detriment to the colony. Some common enemies are spiders, insects, and animals. The largest threats to the honey bee colony include bears, badgers, wax moths, and humans. Bears are attracted to the colony by the sweet honey.They are very powerful and can severely damage a colony with a few swipes the bears try to happen the combs so that they can eat the honey. This is where the defense system of the honey bee s kicks in. During the bears attempted present in, it is common for the bear to receive quite a few stings that leave them howling in pain. There is a specific type of badger that is known for hassling honey bee colonies they are appropriately called the honey badgers. The honey badgers team up with the honey guide, a type of bird, in finding and raiding the honey bee comb. put on moths are detrimental to the honey bee colony for different reasons than the badgers and bears. The wax moths are an invasive pest that seeks out week bee colonies. When they find a week honey bee colony, the wax moths quickly take advantage of the situation. climb moths can completely destroy the wax combs of the honey bee nest. The greatest threat to the honey bee population cannot be blamed upon anyone but the humans. Humans account for a large amount of damaged hives, poisoned bees, and even aid in the spreading of diseases in the bee population.Humans pesticides can be very etrimental to the honey b ees this is mostly an unintentional result, yet it is a serious problem. The largest point of interest and most useful trait of the honey bees is their aid in the pollination of flowers and crops. Without the honey bees contribution in pollination, farmers and gardeners around the world would be struggling to grow any form of plant life. Pollination occurs when a worker bee travels from the hive in search of food. The worker bee gathers nectar from different flowers. While the worker bee is obtaining the nectar, she is also covering herself with pollen from the flower.The bee will maunder many different flowers throughout the day, and she will be bringing the pollen from different flowers to other flowers and therefore pollinating them. The honey bee is the most significant contributor of all pollinators, responsible for pollenating more than 100 agricultural crops in the get together States (Honey Bees are Important Pollinators, para. 4). In the United States alone, it is estima ted that honeybees accomplish 1/4 of the pollination needed for all fruit produced for human consumption an estimated $10 billion worth of work each year (Great Plains temperament Center). The Western honey bee is of vital importance to the human population. It provides many necessities and has proven itself useful to humanity in many ways. Not only is the honey bee vitally important to the welfare of the human civilization, the insect is also a very interesting and fascinating model of a society based on hard work and efficiency. There is something beneficial for everyone to learn in observing the Western honey bee that aids them in becoming a better individual and contributor to society.