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| Single Bee Biology
In this particular section, we will be examining the biology of the worker honeybee in terms of form and function. 
There exists no naturally occurring North American honeybee. In the commercial industry, the honeybee domesticated by the United States is of European origin, and is often referred to as the common honeybee, A. mellifera. As with any sector of the agricultural industry, honeybee breeders are continuously looking to improve their quality of bee, often crossing different species for desired traits, or using means of artificial insemination. Currently, there exist only two U.S honeybee breeders incorporating artificial insemination. In the past, commercial queen producers relied on small gene pools to repopulate U.S colonies, unknowingly contributing to a decrease in available genetic diversity. In an attempt to bring back such diversity, safeguarding the population from predisposed genetic weaknesses, semen from European drones has been successfully implanted in queens exhibiting desirable traits (Kqued 2007).
Akin to nearly all arthropods, the honeybee has an “external skeleton, [which] provides protection from predators, prevents water loss, and serves as a framework for internal muscle attachment” (Winston 1987:13). Characteristic of all insects, it consists of three body segments, the head, thorax, and abdomen, and has compound eyes. Conversely, “...unique to bees are body hairs...connected to nerves, undoubtedly serving as mechanical or tactile receptors, since the exoskeleton is...insensitive to touch” (Gojmerac 1980:18). These hairs are thought to play an important role in the honeybee being able to “distinguish its position with respect to gravity” (Gojmerac 1980:18).
The worker honeybees’ mouthparts are chewing mandibles, used for “ingesting pollen for food; cutting, shaping, and manipulating wax...for nest construction; [and] feeding brood food to larvae and nectar to the queen...” (Winston 1987:19). Mouthparts are also employed for various fastidious tasks such as individual grooming and the cleaning out of hive debris. Perhaps the most important mouthpart is that of the proboscis, which is responsible for the removal of nectar and pollen from local flowers. The nectar and pollen is taken back to the hive where it is stored within the cells of the honeycomb, or turned into brood food, and given to developing larvae.
Worker honeybees are stinging insects that lose their stinger the first time it is utilized, resulting in the honeybee’s demise. From an individual standpoint, such a trait would appear to be maladaptive to a single bee, however “the advantage of losing its sting is that the victim is injected with additional venom [and] in colonies which may have thousands of workers, the loss of a few during colony defense is thus balanced by the added effectiveness of extra venom” (Winston 1987:29).
Worker bees communicate with one another via the transmission of biological chemicals known as pheromones. Different pheromones transmit different messages, as such, worker bees are able to gauge the location of particular food sources or potential predators from each other’s chemical signals. Certain diseases likely contributing to Colony Collapse Disorder are those affecting the honeybees’ communication and navigation system. Accordingly, scientists are paying particular interest to the glandular and nervous systems of the honeybee.
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