The basic senses include smell, hearing, and taste- as well as humidity, carbon dioxide, gravity, and wind speed detection. Who knew that two humble antennae were capable of so much? All bees have antennae with the same basic structure to collect information. There are four muscles at the base of the antenna which control its movement. Connected to the pedicel is the flagellum, the part of the antenna with all the receptors. Male bees have 11 subsegments on their flagellum, and females have Eusocial bees live in dense colonies with specialized roles to play, so their antennae have more functions to help them communicate with their colony members, perceive pheromones, forage for nectar, etc.
Foragers want the sweetest nectar to make honey. The more sugar that nectar has, the more nutritious it is this health advice only applies to bees! But how do they determine the highest sugar levels in the most efficient way?
They can smell traces of sweetness, even midflight. The ability to smell sugar also relates to why bees have two antennae. New generations of bottlenose dolphins adapt to changing situations by learning from peers and not just mothers.
Despite the lack of a nervous system, slime molds can learn and share what they learn with other slime molds by joining together for a time. We use cookies to give you the best browsing experience. By clicking the Accept button you agree to the terms of our privacy policy. Antennae Detect a Variety of Signals Western honeybee. Functions Performed More from this Living System. Sense Chemicals Odor, Taste, etc. From the Environment Chemicals are important for signaling and communication among living systems, either intentionally such as when two living systems try to find one another or unintentionally such as when a plant emits a chemical signal that an herbivore can use to find a tasty bite.
See More of this Function. Sense Sound and Other Vibrations From the Environment For living systems, sensing sound and other vibrations is important for communicating and detecting conditions within their environment. Cooperate Within the Same Species A species is a group of organisms capable of breeding to produce fertile offspring.
See More of this Living System. The antennae of a bee allows it to sense a variety of signals including chemicals, light, vibrations, and electric fields.
A female Melissodes rivalis bee. They also help with anything that the bee needs to manipulate. Like our mouths, this is the opening by which the bee will take in food. Bees' food is almost always liquid in the form of nectar or honey. Gland that produces some of the compounds necessary for making royal jelly, used to feed the larvae.
Honey bees have excellent learning and memory processing abilities. Their brain processes information used in navigation and communication as well as memory. The brain also controls many of the basic bee body functions. The salivary glands have a number of functions. Like the hypopharyngeal gland, the salivary glands produce some compounds necessary for producing royal jelly.
These muscles work very hard and can help the bee to beat its wings up to times per second. Unlike in mammals, honey bees and insects have an open circulatory system, meaning their blood is not contained within tubes like veins or arteries.
The blood, or hemolymph, in insects is free-flowing throughout the body cavity and is pumped via the heart. The heart is the structure in red, and acts like a pumping leaky tube to help move the hemolymph throughout the body. The respiratory system in insects is a series of hollow tubes connected to air sacs in the body. The openings of these hollow tubes are called spiracles. The tubes are called trachea which then provide oxygen and gas exchange to all tissues in the body.
Contains the proventriculus, ventriculus, and small intestine. This is where most of the digestion and nutrient absorption occurs in the insect body. A short tube connecting the midgut to the hindgut. The Ileum also often houses microbes, which aid in digestion.
A set of small tubes that are used to absorb water, waste, and salts and other solutes from body fluid, and remove them from the body. The rectum acts like our large intestine and is the bees primary location of water absorption for the gut after digestion and nutrient absorption. If you look at a bee whose antenna is flexed, the bend you see occurs between the scape and the pedicel. The third major section of the antenna is called the flagellum. The flagellum is especially interesting to bee taxonomists because it can often be used to determine bee sex.
The flagellum is divided into sub-segments called flagomeres. In nearly all species, including the honey bee, females have 10 flagomeres and males have The outer surface of the flagellum is covered with different types of receptors, each type having a special purpose.
The receptors can be identified by their shape and are often described as plates, pits, pegs, and hairs. In general, peg organs are chemoreceptors used for smelling, sensory hairs are mechanoreceptors used for tactile functions, and plate organs are both chemo- and photoreceptors.
But drones, whose job is to find virgins queens in midair, have an estimated , chemoreceptors. The distribution of sensors on the antennae is very specific. For example, the honey bee uses a tuft of sensory hairs at the very tip of the flagellum to determine surface texture.
0コメント