Did you know that honeybees are insects? This means that
they have a three-part body and can fly! They have a head, a thorax and an
abdomen. The thorax is the middle part
and the abdomen is the long torpedo shaped end. Just like humans, bees have
some very specialized body parts to do their daily work. Let’s take a look at
those parts and what they do!
 |
| Here are even more parts on a bee! |
Head
The head is the control center of the bee. It holds the
brain of the bee and is also where the nurse bees produce royal jelly, a
substance they secrete that makes a normal worker egg become a queen bee! The
royal jelly comes out of glands on the top of the worker bee's head. The head
also holds the antenna, eyes, and mouth.
Compound and Simple Eyes
 |
| Can you see all the tiny dots on her eye? Those are all lenses! |
Honeybees have two compound eyes. Compound eyes are special
because they can see different kinds of light very well, especially UV light
from the sun. They also help the bees see colors. They have thousands of tiny
lenses to make one big eye. That is pretty amazing! A bee has three simple eyes
on her forehead that help her determine how much light there is.
Antenna
A bee uses her antenna to tell how fast she is flying. She
also uses them for smelling. Honeybees use smells to tell lots of things, like
who to let into the hive and also to communicate with each other.
 |
| Bees use these to smell things!! |
Mandible (Jaws)
The mandible is a very important part of the bee that allows
them to eat food and also is like the honeybee’s hands. The honeybees use them
to eat pollen and also to bring pollen to the newly laid eggs. Their jaws are
also used to cut and shape the wax in the hive. Did you know that it takes a
honeybee about 24 hours after eating lots of honey to start producing wax?
Proboscis
 |
| The honeybee's proboscis is a dark orange or brown color. |
The proboscis is a long, straw-like tongue that the bee uses
to drink up nectar from flowers. Did you know that honeybees have two stomachs?
They have a stomach called their honey stomach that is like a storage bin for
the nectar the bees collect. When the bees get back to the hive, they take the nectar
from their honey stomach and pass it to one of the other worker bees to find an
empty cell to put it in. They also have a stomach for the food they eat that
leads to their digestive tract.
Thorax
Forewing/Hindwing
The forewing is a larger wing that bee uses for flying. Did
you know a bee makes a buzzing noise because they can flutter their wings
11,000 times per second? That is really fast! The hindwing is a smaller wing
connected to the forewing that the bee can use for cooling off the hive through
fanning. Fanning is when a bee flutters her wings very fast but doesn’t move
anywhere. It’s kind of like running in place for humans.
 |
| Honeybee's wings are almost completely see through! |
Legs
A honeybee has six legs and uses them mostly for walking.
They can also use them for carrying pollen. Did you know that when a bee lands
on a flower they cover themselves with pollen, then they brush their legs down
their back to push the pollen into their pollen baskets? Bees comb their hair
too! Pollen baskets are sticky hairs on the back legs of the bee that act like
backpacks so the bees can carry large amounts of pollen at a time.
Abdomen
Stinger
 |
| Can you see the hooks on her stinger? |
