2023-07-02 16:45:11
Scorpions, bees, wasps, ants, beetles, jellyfish, rays and spider fish have in common the existence of a stinger in their anatomy. It is a sharp organ or part of the body that is used to capture prey or as a method of defense.
Most animals are aggressive when they feel threatened and bees are no exception. They are social animals that have a complex structure and are highly territorial and protective. When they decide to bite, it is because they feel a threat at the level of their space, colony or young, otherwise they would never attack.
The sting of the bees is connected to the venom glands and the intestine, and when they stick it in, it has a hook effect – spikes that get hooked on the skin. In the event that they bite a A wise man the union is irreversible, so they cannot remove it and it ends up detaching from the body, causing the death of the bee.
Now, the bee does not die instantly, we have all seen bees fly after a sting. Death comes hours later, due to fluid loss and internal organ failure.
The original function of the bee sting was to deposit eggs (ovipositor), however, evolution ended up giving it a defensive purpose. This would explain why worker bees die when they sting, a fact that does not happen with queen bees, where the stinger has another function.
The sting of the queen bees is used, on the one hand, to show its supremacy within the colony and, on the other, to place the eggs at the bottom of the cells.
It’s the fault of the apitoxin
Another point worth noting is that bees do not die when they sting other insects, as the stinger is capable of piercing the bees’ relatively thin exoskeleton and then extracting it without damage.
With the bite they deposit a poison called apitoxin, a very complex substance formed in part by formic acid and proteins, mainly by the cytotoxic polypeptide melittin.
Apitoxin causes cell death, after destroying cell membranes, while overstimulating pain receptors, so that the perception we have is that more damage has been produced than what has actually been inflicted.
Drones don’t bite
So far we have referred to the worker bees and the queen, but what about the drones? Male bees in a hive, which develop in larger cells than worker bees, come from unfertilized eggs (parthenogenesis), so they have half the chromosomes of females. For their part, worker bees are diploid, because they are the result of the union between an ovule and a sperm.
The fertilization of the queen bee occurs during the nuptial or fertilization flight, which is repeated between two and five times. After copulation, the drone dies, since its genital apparatus is detached. Among the anatomical characteristics of the drones, the absence of a sting stands out, so this type of bee does not sting us either.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Peter Choker
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