Bee, Anatomy and Structure of Bee
Known for over forty thousand years, bees have been attracting the attention of the man by the usefulness of these products are obtained and the extreme complexity of their social life.
Bee is an insect belonging to the order of Hymenoptera and the family of both bees. They are known about twenty thousand different species and among them stand out, thanks to the economic importance and physiological characteristics, the genus Apis. The species that most lends itself to rational production of honey, pollen, wax, royal jelly and propolis is the Apis mellifera.
Irritable by noises and strong odors, the bee stings and inoculates poison. Let the victim's skin the stinger and attached to it a part of their own entrails, which causes insect death in a maximum of 24 hours. The poison smell immediately triggers a massive attack. The bites can be quite painful, and when in large amounts (over one hundred), dangerous for an adult man. Allergic people may suffer anaphylactic shock with a single bite. However, the individual exposed to frequent bites develops immunity to the poison. This has therapeutic applications, particularly in cases of rheumatism, and the application can be made by insect bite induction at the affected site.
Bee Anatomy. The body of a honeybee is divided into head, thorax and abdomen, like most insects. In the head, are the antennae, tactile and olfactory organs. Next antennas, located the complex visual system that allows the bees see in all directions and over long distances. Even the head, are the salivary glands, responsible for the transformation of nectar into honey; the hypopharynx, which transform ordinary food in royal jelly; and the jaw, which dissolve the wax and help process the royal jelly.Bees have two pairs of wings. The three pairs of legs differ because each one has a specific function. Forefeet, lined with microscopic hairs, they are used in cleaning the antennae, eyes, tongue and jaw. The medians have a spur whose function is to clean the wings and the removal of accumulated pollen hind paws which are characterized by the presence of pollen baskets, combs and thorns. The latter have the purpose of removing the wax particles produced by glands housed in the womb.
The abdomen is home to most of the organs of bees. In it are situated Honeybee vesicle, which turns the nectar into honey and carries the water collected in the field to the hive; the wax glands, which produce the wax; the tracheas or breathing organs; reproductive organs of female and male; and also the stomach, small intestine and heart. It is located in the abdomen that the sting, that workers use as a defensive weapon and the Queen as guidance tool: it is through him that she finds the cells of honeycombs at the time of posture.
Honeycomb structure. With a capacity to house a population of up to tens of thousands of individuals, the hive is made up of a series of combs arranged parallel. The honeycomb is a set of alveoli, hexagonal compartments that workers make wax, where the queen lays eggs and where food is stored (water, honey and pollen). The smaller alveoli are for the development of workers and the larger ones, to the drones.
A hive can be divided into several, by a process called swarming. No more room for posture and food storage, a new queen is produced. His predecessor flies with much of bees to form a new community.
Queens, workers and drones. The queen bee is almost twice as large as the workers and lives of three to six years. Its unique biological function laying eggs. From the social point of view, it is responsible for harmony and order of the colony work. Born of a fertilized egg and is created in a special cell, different from other wells, called realeira, which receives a different food, royal jelly base. Rich in protein, vitamins and sex hormones, this nutrient is responsible for the physiological differentiation of the queen bee in relation to workers.
The males of the hive are drones. Born non-fertilized eggs laid by the queen, 24 days after laying. Live eighty to ninety days and reach sexual maturity on the 12th day after birth. They do not have stingers or any other appropriate body to attack functions, defense or work and depend solely on the workers to survive. They are endowed with exceptional sensory apparatus and can identify by smell or by sight, virgin queens kilometers away.
The workers are responsible for all the work necessary for survival and defense of the hive, except for laying eggs. During the day, they perform the field work, ie, the collection of food and water. Take care of the hive hygiene, wax production and its use in the construction of honeycombs as well as feeding the queen, the drones and the larvae. By means of beating of wings or the introduction of water inside the honeycomb, the workers avoid overheating and to conserve heat, are joined firmly to one another. Thus, maintain stable temperature inside the colony, between 33 to 36 C. They produce and store honey and prepare propolis, the substance processed from plant resins used to disinfect combs and walls, sealing cracks and fix parts. The workers are born 21 days after laying eggs and can live for sixty days to six months in exceptional situations of little activity.
Development of bees. The spermatheca, a cavity of the Queen's abdomen, keep the sperm after mating. Three days after fertilization begins posture. When the queen enters the abdomen in the lower socket, compresses the spermatheca, releasing the sperm that will fertilize the egg. In the case of larger alveoli, the Espermateca is not compressed, and unfertilized egg is deposited. Each well receives a single egg. Three days after laying, a white larva, which is fed by the workers. Six days begins the process of metamorphosis. At the pupal stage, which lasts 12 days, followed by adulthood.
Communication. The workers have very accurate media to indicate to their companions the places where there is food. This is done mainly through "dances" a sickle-shaped path, for small distances, in the form of an eight, at distances between 65 and 6,000 m. The faster the dance, the closer the location: just seven laps in 15 seconds indicate a distance of 200m. The discovery of the mode of communication between bees is mainly due to the German Karl von Frisch and his school in Munich.
African bees. The species A. mellifera is composed of several races, the best known being in beekeeping Italian, the meat, Caucasians and African. Swarms of the latter, A. m. adansonii of great melífera productivity were brought to Brazil to research in the mid-1950s by an oversight, escaped the control of researchers and dominated in a short time, all of the genus Apis beehives existing in Brazil. Thus, the Africanized bees, result of crossing bees adansonii breed with European bees previously installed, now constitute the working material available to Brazilian beekeepers. Despite its more aggressive, have advantages from a commercial point of view. They start producing early, stop later and do not have the instinct of "hibernation" common winter to European races - although the beekeeper is obliged to provide them with artificial feeding during the cold season.
