Claire Larson

4-24-15
Colleen Biology Period 5

1st SourceCitationTubules, Malpighian. "Internal Anatomy of Honey Bees." ENTO 489 Internal Anatomy of
Honey Bees (2011): n. pag. Internal Anatomy of Honey Bees. Texas A&M
University,
4 Oct. 2010. Web. 19 Apr. 2015.
<https://insects.tamu.edu/continuing_ed/bee_biology/lectures/password/Internal_
Anatomy_of_Honey_Bees_PN.pdf>
Summary Digestive system includes Esophagus, crop, proventriculus valve, midgut,
excretory tubules, and the rectum.
Crop can be called the honey stomach.
When crop is full, it takes up a large area of the anterior abdomen.
The maximum amount of nectar a crop can hold at one point is 100 mg., but
usually ranges from 20mg., to 40mg.,
The proventriculus is a pipe that prevents the contents inside the cop from fleeting
into the stomach.
The proventriculus composes as a filter for prying out pollen that may be mixed
with nectar.
The pollen collects in pockets behind the proventriculus.
Most digestion happens and consumption takes place in the midgut, or small
intestine.
The midgut opens up to the rectum where waste is dumped.
Bees, and most insects have no lungs
The bees trachea pushes oxygen to the cells, and carbon dioxide away from the
cells.
During stress, like when in flight, the bees push their abdomen to build more gas
commerce and expand air sacs of the trachea.
The nervous system contains the brain, and 7 ganglia around various areas
throughout the bee body.
The brain of the bee does not do the most controlling, while the ganglia does.
There are more than seven known glands throughout the bees body.
The glands have four basic functions of wax production, communication, defense,
and food processing.

Evaluation-

The information that has been given will help me to create a project that can show the important
parts of the bees anatomy. Various information that involves the anatomy of the bees was
included, and has given me new insights on how the bee lives, functions, creates wax and nectar,
and processes food. With the content that has been brought to me, I can focus on building a
project that will show the audience the parts as well as the functions of the bees internal
anatomy. The data that has brought to me will help me to understand the basic parts of bees as I
move further into my research.
Evidence1. There are 2 kinds fat body cells; 1) fat cells contain mostly fat and some
albumen (protein), and some glycogen, 2) oenocytes, thought to have functions
associated with wax production, and the transport of molecules. (Page 3, paragraph 6)
2. Unlike mammals the circulatory and respiratory systems are mostly separated in
insects. (Page 4, paragraph 1)
3. Insects are adapted to tolerate much higher concentrations of CO2 than humans.
(Page 4, paragraph 12)

2nd SourceCitation"Bee Biology and Society." Bee Biology and Society. University of Kentucky, 14 Nov. 2010.
Web. 19 Apr. 2015.
<http://www.uky.edu/Ag/Entomology/ythfacts/4h/beekeep/beebio&s.htm>
Summary Honey bees are classified as Hymenoptera, as are many other bees, ants, and
wasps.
When bees are pollinating, the pollen collects on the hairs of their legs, and are
then store in pollen baskets on their hind legs.
Honey bees have never been tamed, as beekeepers assume to work with their
natural social behavior.
The honey bee is a social insect, and cannot thrive by itself.
Each member of the colony has a specific job, and there are three kinds of bees in
the colony. The queen, the worker, and the drone.
The queen has the shortest wings, and longest body of the colony.
The queens most important job is to lay eggs. A queen can lay more than 1,500
eggs a day.
A fertilized queen egg formulates in about 3 days.
Queens can live to around 5 years, and the most to almost 9 years.
Workers are the smallest of the colony, and are the most popular.
During the summer, there are thousands of workers to pollinate.

 A worker bees job depends on its age. Younger workers do hive chores, middle
aged workers work to control the temperature and humidity of the hive, and older
workers work in the field to pollinate.
A regular worker bee lives to around a month.
The drone is larger than the worker, but shorter than the queen bee.
The drone does not have a stinger, glands that produce wax, pollen baskets, and
cannot collect nectar.
The drones only job is to fertilize the queen, and dies during this operation.
The drones are expelled from the colony before winter begins.
EvaluationThis resource has given me new information on each type of honey bee, and its specific job.
New knowledge that was gained includes the honey bees jobs, names, how long they live for,
and the different stages of their birth and life . With the instruction that was given, I can begin to
think about how I would like to integrate the facts into a project, and release this data to the
audience as best as I can. Some new ideas for a project could include, a poster board with facts,
or a hands on informational piece that the audience could connect to.
Evidence1. Originally, honeybees were brought to America by European settlers. In 1956,
researchers in Brazil were trying to develop a more productive honeybee. (Paragraph
27.)
2. Honeybees in North America belong to a single species (Apis mellifera), but
several races exist within that species. Races differ in coloration, temperament,
industriousness, hardiness, disease resistance, tendency to swarm, and other
characteristics. (Paragraph 23.)
3. Honeybees were not significantly genetically selected by humans until recently
because basic bee reproduction was not understood until 1845. (Paragraph 26.)
3rd SourceCitationKhoury, David S., Andrew B. Barron, and Mary R. Myerscough. "Modelling Food and
Population Dynamics in Honey Bee Colonies." PLOS ONE:. Plos One, 7 May 2013.
Web. 21 Apr. 2015.
<http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0059084>
Summary Without bees, human agricultural crops would decline tremendously, and many
kinds of food would disappear.
Colony failure rates are increasing, while the need for honey bees is also
increasing.

 As honey bees gather nectar and pollen while pollinating, many bees also must
gather food material to keep the hive thriving.
Food availability inside the hive is directly impacted by forager honey bee death
rates.
When a colony has low death rates and there is high food opportunity, the colony
is considered at a symmetrical state.
Pollen is key to bees health and contributes lipids, proteins, and vitamins and
minerals to bees.
The honey that is created, as well as the pollen and nectar that are inside the hive
are fed to the developing larvae and queen as mineral-rich food.
EvaluationThis source has given me information I could use to create a model that expresses how important
food can be to a honey bee colony. The information is specific and relevant, and focuses on how
food nourishes the honey bee, and what specific minerals that are found in the pollen and nectar
that feed them. I can use this data to represent how food affects the bees internal anatomy, and
how important it is for the bee to ingest food to stay energized and work. The project can show
the bees internal anatomy, and how they carry the food that feeds themselves and the colony as a
whole. With the new instruction, I can show how food shortages directly affect a honey bee, and
the bees hive.
Evidence1) Food collection is influenced by the size of the forager population, and in turn food flux
through the colony can influence the size of the forager population by altering the rate at which
hive bees become foragers and the size of the brood population, which will eventually become
the next generation of foragers. (Abstract paragraph.)
2) Low death rates and high food availability results in stable bee populations at equilibrium
(with population size strongly determined by forager death rate) but consistently increasing food
reserves. (Abstract paragraph.)
3) This issue is pertinent because the amount of honey that can be extracted from commercial
beehives for human use depends on bees collecting nectar in excess of what is needed to support
their population, and storing the excess as honey. (Introduction paragraph 2.)