How many pairs of wings and legs does a honey bee have: photo, description. The structure of a honey bee: description

A bee is a flying insect whose closest relatives are ants and wasps. Despite the fact that everyone has known it well since childhood, it is unlikely that anyone will be able to immediately answer how many legs a bee has or what its flight speed is.

Speaking about how much it weighs, it must be emphasized that its weight depends on what functions will be performed. On average, weight can range from 85 mg to 280 mg. As you can see, the scatter is quite large and also depends on the region of residence. This is the reason why sometimes they appear very small and sometimes they appear large.

Bee structure

A bee's aircraft has 4 wings.
Since the lifting force of the front ones is much greater than the rear ones, they bear the lion's share of the load both during takeoff and during the flight itself. Bees are flying insects of the order Hymenoptera, directly related to ants and wasps. Contrary to what ordinary people think, there are a great many varieties of bee families: in Europe alone, the bee fauna consists of more than 1965 species. Despite this scope, representatives of all families are anatomically similar.

The body color of the bees we are used to is black and yellow. The Hymenoptera has six legs and large compound eyes. The sting is located at the back.

The size of the insect ranges from 2.1 mm (dwarf bee) to 3.9 cm. The largest representative of the bee fauna is the Indonesian megachilid.

Each winged worker has a proboscis - a special device for extracting nectar from flowers. The head has antennae (antennae). In females, the number of segments on the antennae is 12, and in males - 13. There are wax glands on the body that produce beeswax.

The hind wings mainly serve as a rudder, with the help of which the bees can make turns during flight.

The outside of the body is covered with a chitinous cuticle, on top of which numerous branched villi are located on the body. The “fur coat” generates static electricity and collects pollen. From time to time, the bee sweeps away the stuck particles with brushes and collects pollen in a special reservoir - a basket located between its hind legs.

Bees live in families, which represent a single organized system, where each inhabitant performs its own function. This affects the structure of the body. Working females have collecting apparatuses and long proboscis, but the genitals are atrophied. Larger and more elongated queen bees do not collect nectar and pollen, so the body is not equipped with working supplements. Their body is designed for active mating and egg laying. Drones also do not have long noses or collecting structures. The male's job is to fertilize the uterus, which is why drones have reproductive organs.

Features of the supporting apparatus and legs

The external structure of a bee is very interesting, namely how many legs it has. A bee has 6 legs, respectively, three pairs, and each pair of legs is different from each other:

1. The middle pair is the least developed in its structure. It has claws for moving on rough surfaces, as well as a pad for moving on smooth surfaces.
2. The front legs most resemble arms; they can bend more strongly, and with them the insect performs different types of work. In their heel there is a semicircular cutout, and opposite there is a movable process of the lower leg, through which individuals pass their antennae and clean them. This is very important for the bee's sense of smell. Drones clean them most thoroughly, since they need to smell the queen in flight at a great distance, which is not easy.
3. The hind legs have another special device - baskets. The bee's body is covered with hairs; the insect scrapes off the adhering grains and places them in these baskets. After collecting pollen, it is clearly visible which individual brought the load with it; on their hind legs there are many multi-colored (pollen can be of different colors) lumps of the collected product.

Characteristics of bee wings

Both pairs are attached to the chest half rings.
When at rest, the bee folds them along its back, and they straighten out before taking off. The front ones have special hooks, and the rear ones have hooks. Let's start by finding the answer to the question, how many pairs of wings does a bee have? According to the reference book, each representative of the bee fauna has two pairs of leathery membranous wings, or four separate wings. It is noteworthy that the rear blades are smaller than the front ones. They are stretched over a chitinous structure and attached to the chest part of the body.

The most powerful muscles are located here, because the thoracic region not only ensures flight and the functioning of the legs, but also carries additional load. There are no muscles on the wings themselves; all flight muscles are located on the body.

Bee wings are living structures, not keratinized dead surfaces. At the base of the wing is a tubular vein of chitin, which branches out like a river bed and becomes smaller and thinner segments on the flight surfaces.

The hemolymph moves through the chitinous cavities, and metabolism occurs in the aircraft. The blades are covered with fine pile. There is a crease on the lower edge of the upper wing, and the lower wing is equipped with hitch hooks.

Main functions of wings

At first glance, the wings appear to be two thin and translucent plates. But this is not entirely true, since on their surface there are small hairs that can only be seen through a microscope.

Flight

Of course, the main function of the wings is to provide flight over long distances, and the ability to carry additional cargo on the body.

The wings, located on one side, interlock with each other using small hooks, so a single plane is formed in flight. The teeth are located on the lower wing. When the insect takes flight, a couple of dozen hooks grip the groove-like fold of the upper blade, creating a wide flight surface on each side. If necessary, the pair is unfastened, and the wing parts slide one over the other.

This feature makes life easier for the insect. For flight mode, a single design with improved aerodynamic properties is more convenient, but when the bee plunges into the corolla of a flower or moves in the cells of the hive, the large wings fold like a fan, forming two parts. In the resting position, the wings are pressed tightly against the body, and the large front blade covers the rear wing.

Household needs: ventilation and cleanliness

The aircraft wears out quickly, especially during the period of active honey collection.
It is by the degree of wear of the wings that the beekeeper can determine the age of the insects. The flight apparatus has another purpose. In the hot summer, during the nectar collection period, workers ventilate the hives, creating air movement by flapping their wings. In addition, bees use the blades to clean the nest, sweeping the floor with their wings.

Sound signals

During flight, the bee “buzzes”, and the sound is different, depending on the state in which the insect is flying: with or without a load.

Age determination

When flapping, the wings first touch each other above the body, and then below under the legs, that is, they rotate almost 360°.
The flapping frequency is from 300 to 450 per second. This feature is more interesting to beekeepers than to insects. Since an aircraft is a living and fragile structure that is used frequently and very actively, bee wings wear out quickly. By the appearance of the wings, beekeepers draw conclusions about the age of the insect.

What kind of wings do different types of bees have?

Representatives of different families have the same wing structure, but may differ in size - the flight apparatus of each variety corresponds to the size of the insect.

“Intra-family” differences are more important. Each swarm is a family of workers, drones and queen bees. Each type of bee has a special wing structure.

The uterus can only cover half of the belly with its wings. This is how you can easily distinguish it from ordinary worker bees. Plus, she's bigger than them.

The uterus has the shortest wings relative to the size of the abdomen. The queen of the bee family does not fly and does not care about food, her task is to mate and lay as many eggs as possible, so the queen bee does not need a strong and hardy flying machine: small blades barely reach the middle of the oblong abdomen.

In males (drones), the wings are much longer - the flight blades protrude beyond the edges of the semi-rings by 3–4 mm.

The most functional and strong wings are those of working females, who obtain nectar and pollen, and also organize all processes in the hive. Worker bees have an optimal ratio of body and wing sizes, which ensures high efficiency.

Common Breeds

There are a large number of honey bees, they can be distinguished by appearance, color and some other features. A description of the most popular bees can be found in the table:

How many strokes does a bee make?

The flight speed of tireless workers ranges from 25 to 60 km/h.
It depends on the mass of the load the bee carries and on the terrain. For example, when flying without cargo, the speed can reach 60 km/h. When the bee returns home with nectar or pollen, the speed can be within 25 km/h. In flight, the wings perform from 90 to 440 oscillatory movements per second. The bee flaps its wings not only in the vertical plane: when turning, the wings move rotationally, changing the direction of movement. With a full swing, the flight surface makes a figure eight in the air.

Plant protection methods

If a gardener wants to keep plant leaves looking attractive, there are several ways to do so without harming the leaf cutter.

To do this, leaves can be:

• cover with fine mesh (17 mesh) or gauze;
• dust with sifted wood ash, finely ground hot pepper, and tobacco dust;
• treat with soapy water.

The last two methods have their pros and cons. They will repel insects, and the ash and tobacco will act as fertilizer. But the effect of such procedures will be nullified after the first rain.

The rose can be protected by feeding it with potassium fertilizers - they will make the leaves hard and unattractive to the bees. Nitrogen fertilizing, on the contrary, increases the number of vegetative parts of the plant and makes them more tender, which is necessary for creating leaf cutter cells.

You can distract the leaf cutter from roses by planting nearby other types of flowers or trees that are beneficial for bees.

The use of chemical insecticides is not recommended for a number of reasons:

• the number of pollinated plants will decrease;
• In addition to leaf cutters, honey plants may also die;
• you can deprive the area of ​​protectors from aphids - ladybugs and lacewings;
• The deliberate extermination of leaf-cutter bees may be punishable by law.

To remove a leafcutter bee from the garden you need:

• Remove dead reeds, reeds, thistles and thistles. Leaf-cutter bees happily settle near them or in the cavities of dry stems. Dried or fallen trees also pose a danger in this sense.
• If you manage to find a nest and it is quite accessible, then you need to carefully remove it and take it away, or leave it alone, and next spring, when the young bees fly out, caulk the hole.

The leafcutter bee is a useful and rare insect. It is capable of processing a huge number of plants, including difficult to pollinate ones. The damage that representatives of this species cause to flower beds is minimal. Having noticed this bee on the site, it is better not to get rid of it. It can increase yields, especially if legumes are grown.

What is the maximum speed and maximum flight distance of a bee?

In a second, the insect flies from 2 to 14 m, developing a speed of 5 to 70 km per hour. Much depends on how the bee moves - loaded or light. The terrain also matters. If the flight is not interfered with by trees or other obstacles, the striped worker reaches maximum speed.

During the collection of nectar and pollen, an insect can “load” itself by 2/3 of its own weight. Additional burden does not prevent the striped worker from flying at speeds from 19 to 32 km per hour. Without load, the speed doubles or even triples.

The flight range can reach 8–11 km. Usually on level ground they do not fly further than 4 km.

As for distance, the purpose of the flight plays a decisive role here. The bee goes for nectar and pollen. If what you are looking for is not found nearby, the working individual can cover a distance of up to 11 km. On flat terrain, bees fly no further than 4 km from the hive.

Beekeepers believe that bees achieve maximum efficiency by collecting floral raw materials at a distance of no more than 2 km. Flight over long distances means wear on the wings and early death of the bees, and the insect will not be able to bring much prey from afar.

Wings for bees are one of the main working tools. The strength and endurance of the aircraft is important for ensuring the life of the hive and the production of apiproducts. Fragile transparent wings are ephemeral only in appearance, but in reality they represent a well-thought-out and effective mechanism.

Division of labor

The queen bee is the head of the family.

queen or queen

The queen is 2 times larger than an ordinary bee, her proboscis is short, and there are no baskets or combs on her legs. The queen is the successor of the bee family; her genitals occupy most of the abdomen.

The queen mates with dozens of males; this period in her life is called nuptial flight (in fairness, it is worth noting that this bee practically never gets out of her hive). On the second to fourth days, the queen lays eggs in cells made of honeycombs, at which time the entire swarm guards her.

The development of the honey bee occurs in three main stages:

1. Egg. With the laying of eggs in the honeycomb, the embryonic stage of development begins for them, lasting 3 days.
2. Larva. The bees take care of the formed larvae, they feed the larvae of drones and worker bees with beebread and honey, and the larvae of young queens are fed with royal jelly.
3. Doll. The worker bee larva develops into a pupa in 12 days, the drone larva transforms on the 14th day, and the queen pupa develops on the 16th day.

A worker bee (a female bee that does not have the ability to procreate) has no needs of its own and works exclusively for the benefit of the entire family. He begins his working career by cleaning or looking after larvae, caring for new broods. On the tenth day, she can move on to another task - building a honeycomb from beeswax, and after another 6 days - participating in the preparation of honey. The worker bee reaches the top of the career ladder on day 20; it can bring the main components for making honey.

A drone is a male individual that does not burden itself with any work. The drone has an underdeveloped proboscis and no sting at all. All drones do is fertilize the main and only female during her mating flight. After this significant event in his life, the drone dies. Males that do not participate in fertilization are expelled by the family. Driven out of the hive, they cannot live independently and die.

It stings but does not die

The digestive system of bees is designed in such a way that some of its parts are located in the last, that is, in the sixth abdominal segment-cone. The sting is also attached to this cone.

Body structure

The problem is that when a bee sting remains in the victim's body, part of the digestive system may also remain there. The individual will die, but not immediately.

When does it die and why?

Sometimes the bee sting does not catch on the skin and does not remain on the skin. This happens, for example, if they attack other insects. And then the bee's life can continue.

Wasps, that is, insects of the genus Ammophila, can sting and not die.

The bee's sting is designed in such a way that it clings to the skin and remains in it. Wasps are luckier in this sense.

Abdominal segment of Ammophila and Apis

Drones have only genitals on the last segment. And they don’t have any sting.

Where does the poison come from?

The sting is always connected to a sac, which is filled with poison. In general, two components are used - poison and alkali.

Sixth segment with pouch

If you carefully remove the sac remaining on the skin and do not squeeze it, you can protect yourself from poison. The bee's mouthparts are not involved in the attack - it does not bite, but only stings.

If stung in the eye

Above we looked at what a bee sting looks like under a microscope. Due to the presence of hooks, it will be difficult to remove.

Human eye, structure

Bees rarely reach the soft tissues of the human eye. But even if only the eyelid is damaged, you should immediately seek help.

Various cases are known:

• The bee's sting reached the sclera through the eyelid, and vision was restored by 100%;
• When the cornea was damaged, vision deteriorated by “0.1”;
• If the sting hits the sclera directly, even complete blindness cannot be ruled out.

What to do if a bee is already sitting on your eye? The best thing to do would be to just blink. And then you will need qualified and urgent help.

Reproduction

The uterus is responsible for reproduction. In one season, she lays several tens of thousands of eggs, filling the nest with young, able-bodied workers. Once a year, the queen bee leaves her hive to mate with a drone, then returns to the colony and continues to lay new larvae. The average lifespan of a female is influenced by the level and duration of her egg production.

Drones spend their entire lives trying to find a queen bee for fertilization. They look larger and thicker than ordinary workers, but do not have a sting. Drones serve to fertilize queens. After mating they always die.

In beekeeping, there are different seasons that are associated with the seasons. During each season, the families require different care and proper feeding. Experienced beekeepers know the basic principles of caring for each population, and also have several secret ways to help the family cope with problems.

In the spring, the beekeeper begins to move the hives from the winter road to the street.

The families are transplanted into new clean hives. A new frame with flower honey is placed in the treated beehive. A frame with brood is installed nearby. The beekeeper then transfers the queen and workers. If there is less than 8 kg in the hive. honey, the beekeeper needs to replenish the supply with unopened honey frames.

Summer starts in June.

During the honey collection period, the beekeeper needs to closely monitor the normal swarming of colonies. Before the separation and departure of the swarm, there is noise, disturbance and activity inside the hives. After the queen flies out, the swarm settles around her. It is necessary to calmly collect the new swarm with light movements into a separate container. First you need to quickly catch the queen, then the swarm itself will fly after her and sit next to her. You can force insects into a new hive with a smoker. If there are several queens, the bees will still make a lot of noise and worry. Then you need to find and remove all the extra queens, leaving one.

In the fall, the beekeeper needs to check the readiness of his bees for winter.

The quality and quantity of winter supplies in the hives must be checked. During the dry season, hives can be filled with honeydew, which is poisonous. This product is distinguished by its dark color and flakes that appear when dissolved in water. The beekeeper must replace the honeydew product with flower or sugar fertilizer.

For the winter, insects are left with the required amount of natural food or fed with sugar syrup. 5 liters are given per family. syrup, ratio: 1.5 kg of sugar per liter of water. Each hive can be divided in half to better maintain the desired temperature during wintering.

There is a table for caring for bees at different times. It can be used as a benefit to provide wards with proper care and save the population from extinction or disease. It is necessary to know which species are most suitable for a particular climate and the characteristics of their breeding.

Parasitic bees

Among bees there are entire subfamilies of kleptoparasites - insects that appropriate other people's nests and food. In other words, they live off the labor of other bees. They are called cuckoo bees due to their similar behavior to birds of the same name.

Neon cuckoo bee

In such species, the body is not sufficiently developed to collect pollen and nectar. They also do not build nests. Instead, insects throw their eggs into other people's homes. When a kleptoparasite larva appears, it can destroy other larvae and all food. Sometimes such bees destroy the queen of the colony, and themselves settle in the nest.

All about bees

Bees are highly organized insects whose lifestyle is unique in its own way. Keeping bees from a beekeeper requires not only basic knowledge about pumping out honey and installing a hive; for successful “cooperation” with bees, it is necessary to know and take into account many nuances of their bee life.

Interesting facts for beekeepers

Development of bee larvae

Interesting facts about bees:

• ¾ development of a bee from egg to adult: queen – 17 days, drone – 24 days, worker bees – 21 days;
• ¾ with the help of the upper jaws: the queen kills rivals, the drone destroys the sealed cell, providing itself with an exit, worker bees give shape to the wax when building honeycombs;
• ¾ the pass to the hive is a specific smell that belongs only to a certain bee family; they keep the smell in a separate cavity of the body, approaching the “guard” the bee presents this smell as a kind of pass;
• ¾ to obtain 1 kg of honey, a bee needs to collect nectar from 8-15 million flowers;
• ¾ over the summer, the average family prepares up to 150 kg of honey (420 kg is a record number recorded by honey farmers);
• ¾ bees do not sleep in winter;
• ¾ the bee Apis mellifera scutellata has the ability to sting repeatedly, and at the same time likes to stubbornly pursue the victim;
• ¾ lethal outcome is possible only from 100-1000 bee stings, directly from the poison; if there is an allergy, a person can die from a single sting;
• ¾ to get a spoonful of honey, 200 individuals must work all day;
• ¾ poppy, lupine, corn, rose hips - make it possible to collect only pollen;
• ¾ about 2 glasses of water is needed by a bee colony per day.

How to determine the appearance in the garden?

The appearance of a leaf-cutter bee on a garden plot is difficult to confuse with something else, or the activity of another insect. Only this species leaves such even and neat holes in the leaves.

They especially love rose gardens - the soft leaves of roses are perfect for cells, and the flowers themselves contain the necessary nectar and pollen

Other plants will not be ignored:

• lilac;
• acacia;
• grape;
• quince;
• alfalfa;
• clover;
• cherry

Sometimes you can see an insect that flies into a hole in a fence, a hole in the bark of a tree or in the ground. But it’s not just leaf-cutter bees that live in these burrows. Therefore, you will have to take a closer look at the appearance and occupation of the unexpected tenant.

Vision

A bee has two types of eyes: three simple ones on the top of its head and two complex ones on the sides.

Bee eyes

Compound eyes are called compound eyes. They have a convex oblong shape. If you enlarge such an eye several times, you will notice a huge number of hexagons on the surface. Worker bees have about 6,000 of them.

Macro photography of compound eye

Each such cell is a peephole formed from visual cells. Due to the specific structure of the eyes, the bee sees the image less clearly - it resembles a picture divided into separate dots. She finds it easier to watch moving images than static ones.

How bees see

Simple eyes have a similar structure, but they are too poorly developed to perceive images. Their function has not been reliably studied, but most likely, with the help of simple eyes, insects distinguish between light and darkness.

Why do insects buzz?

Almost all insects make a slightly annoying buzzing sound when flying.
Although there are insects that can fly absolutely silently, for example, butterflies. But why are the bees buzzing then? This is due to the fact that the size of the wings, their number and flapping speed simply do not allow the sound to be reduced during flight. It turns out that only those insects that do not flap their wings so often and whose wings are larger than the body itself . Bees have small wings, so the speed of their flapping must be enormous. This is how the buzzing sound is created when flying.

Using the power of buzzing, individuals communicate with each other. In this way, insects are able to exchange information. It looks incredibly mesmerizing. However, most often such communication in insects is nothing more than a warning of impending danger .