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Bee facts

Bee anatomy

Start with the basics: a worker honey bee, outside and in. Find each numbered part on the plate, then read about it in the list below. Each statement links to its source.

Engraving of a honey bee seen from above. The bee spreads its four wings and six legs. Two antennae curve up from the head, which has two large eyes.
A honey bee seen from above. Francesco Stelluti engraved it for a book printed in Rome in 1630. The numbers match the list below. See these parts on a living bee. Studies A to G show parts close up. Source: Persio tradotto in verso sciolto e dichiarato, Smithsonian Libraries (public domain).

The queen

In a normal colony the queen is the only bee that lays eggs. She can lay up to 1,500 a day. 416

Engraving of a queen honey bee seen from above. Two thin antennae curve up from the head, which has two round eyes. The folded wings lie over the front of the long abdomen, which has dark bands and ends in a rounded tip. Six legs spread out from the thorax.
A queen seen from above. Cl. Lucas engraved it for a book by René-Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur, printed in Paris in 1740. The book shows her at natural size. The letters match the list. Source: Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire des insectes, volume 5, plate 22, Wellcome Collection (public domain).

Close up, and inside

Studies A to G show the mouth, the hairs, and the parts inside the body. The numbers match the plate and the list below.

  • Engraving of the head of a honey bee seen from the front. Two large eyes sit on the sides, three small eyes sit near the top, and the mouth parts hang below.
    AHead, from the frontThe plate cuts the mouth parts short. Snodgrass, 1910, fig. 9A.
  • Engraving of the tongue of a honey bee: a long, hairy shaft with four narrower parts around it.
    BTongueStelluti shows the tongue with its four small tongues. Stelluti, 1630, fig. 9.
  • Engraving of four hairs of a honey bee. Each hair has short side branches along its length, like a feather.
    CBranched hairsStelluti called them the feathers of the bee. Stelluti, 1630, fig. 5.
  • Engraving of the thorax of a drone honey bee cut in half. A large muscle of fine parallel fibres fills the upper part. A block of upright fibres fills the lower part.
    DFlight musclesThe thorax of a drone, cut in half. Snodgrass, 1910, fig. 27.
  • Engraving of the side of the abdomen of a honey bee, in curved plates of fine lines. Small circles on the plates are the spiracles.
    ESpiraclesThe side of the abdomen of a worker. The small circles are spiracles. Snodgrass, 1910, fig. 32.
  • Engraving of the gut of a honey bee, cut open from above and drawn on a dark ground. The glands of the head lie at the top. The honey stomach, the midgut, and the hindgut lie in the abdomen at the bottom.
    FGutThe gut of a worker, seen from above. Snodgrass, 1910, fig. 42.
  • Engraving of the tip of the abdomen of a honey bee with the left side removed. A large oval venom sac lies at the left, and the sting lies at the lower right.
    GSting and venom sacThe tip of the abdomen of a worker, with the left side removed. Snodgrass, 1910, fig. 41.

The parts of the plate

Head

The head holds the eyes, the antennae, and the mouthparts. 1

  • 1

    Antenna

    Each antenna smells and touches. An organ in its second segment picks up movement of the air, so the bee can hear the sound of a waggle dance. 139

  • 2

    Compound eye

    Each of the two large eyes has about 5,400 small facets. Bees see ultraviolet light, which people cannot see. 56

  • 3

    OcelliStudy A

    Three simple eyes on top of the head. They watch the sky and the horizon, and help the bee hold its course in flight. 78

  • 4

    MandibleStudy A

    A pair of jaws. Workers use them to chew pollen and to shape wax into comb. 12

  • 5

    ProboscisStudy B

    A tube-like tongue that sucks up nectar and honey. It folds back under the head when the bee is not feeding. 12

Thorax

The middle of the body. All six legs and all four wings attach to it. 1

  • 6

    Forewing

    The large front wing. When a bee hovers, its wings beat about 230 times each second. 10

  • 7

    Hindwing

    The small rear wing. A row of about 20 tiny hooks on its front edge holds it to the forewing, so the two wings move as one. 11

  • 8

    Branched hairStudy C

    Hairs with fine side branches cover the body. Pollen grains catch in them, and the legs comb the grains out. 413

  • 9

    Foreleg

    Each foreleg has an antenna cleaner: a notch lined with a comb of stiff hairs. The bee pulls its antenna through the notch. 112

  • 10

    Middle leg

    Moves pollen from the body to the hind legs, and pats each pollen load into place. 13

  • 11

    Pollen basket

    A smooth hollow on the hind leg, edged with long hairs. The bee wets pollen with a little honey or nectar and packs it here to carry home. Plant resin travels the same way. 41314

  • 12

    Flight musclesStudy D

    They fill almost all of the thorax, but they do not pull on the wings. Two sets of muscles take turns to change the shape of the thorax, and this moves the wings up and down. 2

Abdomen

The rear of the body. It holds most of the gut, the venom sac, and the stinger. A narrow waist joins it to the thorax. 23

  • 13

    SpiraclesStudy E

    Breathing holes along the sides of the body. They open into air tubes and air sacs inside the body. 12

  • 14

    Honey stomachStudy F

    A thin sac at the front of the abdomen. A forager carries nectar home in it. A valve behind it keeps the bee from digesting the nectar. 21

  • 15

    MidgutStudy F

    The largest part of the gut, bent into a U-shaped loop. Here the bee digests its food and takes in the nutrients. 21

  • 16

    HindgutStudy F

    A short, looped intestine leads to the rectum, which stores waste and takes back water. Workers empty it outside the hive, on short cleansing flights. 2115

  • 17

    Venom sacStudy G

    Glands make the venom, and the sac stores it. A pump in the bulb at the base of the stinger drives the venom into a wound. 21

  • 18

    StingerStudy G

    A changed egg-laying organ, so only females have one. The stinger of a worker is barbed. It stays in the skin of a mammal, and the worker dies. 412

Sources

  1. Ask A Biologist, Arizona State University (2017). Honey bee anatomy. Arizona State University School of Life Sciences.
  2. R. E. Snodgrass (1910). The anatomy of the honey bee. US Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Entomology, Technical Series 18.
  3. N. L. Carreck and others (2013). Standard methods for Apis mellifera anatomy and dissection. Journal of Apicultural Research 52(4).
  4. A. N. Mortensen, D. R. Schmehl, and J. D. Ellis (no date). European honey bee, Apis mellifera Linnaeus and subspecies. University of Florida IFAS Extension, EENY568.
  5. M. Streinzer and others (2013). Sex and caste-specific variation in compound eye morphology of five honeybee species. PLOS ONE 8(2): e57702.
  6. North Carolina State University (no date). Color vision. ENT 425 General Entomology.
  7. Y.-S. Hung and M. R. Ibbotson (2014). Ocellar structure and neural innervation in the honeybee. Frontiers in Neuroanatomy 8: 6.
  8. G. Kastberger (1990). The ocelli control the flight course in honeybees. Physiological Entomology 15(3).
  9. S. Tsujiuchi and others (2007). Dynamic range compression in the honey bee auditory system toward waggle dance sounds. PLOS ONE 2(2): e234.
  10. D. L. Altshuler and others (2005). Short-amplitude high-frequency wing strokes determine the aerodynamics of honeybee flight. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 102(50).
  11. S. H. Eraghi and others (2021). Wing coupling in bees and wasps: from the underlying science to bioinspired engineering. Advanced Science 8: 2004383.
  12. K. Schönitzer and M. Renner (1984). The function of the antenna cleaner of the honeybee (Apis mellifica). Apidologie 15(1).
  13. D. B. Casteel (1912). The behavior of the honey bee in pollen collecting. US Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Entomology, Bulletin 121.
  14. M. Simone-Finstrom and M. Spivak (2010). Propolis and bee health: the natural history and significance of resin use by honey bees. Apidologie 41(3).
  15. F. Drummond (2022). Honey bee cleansing flights… just cleansing?. Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society 94(2).
  16. T. W. Cowan (1890). The honey bee: its natural history, anatomy, and physiology. Houlston and Sons, London.
  17. Mid-Atlantic Apiculture Research and Extension Consortium (no date). The Colony and Its Organization. University of Delaware, with Penn State University.

Drone, worker, and queen

Drone

  • A drone is a male. It has no pollen basket and no wax glands. 17
  • A drone is the largest bee in the colony. 17
  • Its main function is to mate with a virgin queen from another colony. 417
  • Nobody has seen drones take food from flowers. 17

Worker

  • A worker is a female. It is the smallest of the three kinds of bee in a colony. 4
  • In their first few weeks as adults, workers clean the cells, feed the brood, and care for the queen. 17
  • Later, as field bees, they forage for nectar, pollen, and water. 17
  • In summer, a worker lives about 6 weeks. A worker reared in the fall can live up to 6 months. 17
  • A worker uses its stinger to defend the colony. 4

Queen

  • Her head is about the same size as that of a worker. Her thorax is slightly larger. 417
  • Her stinger is longer than that of a worker, with fewer and shorter barbs. She does not die when she stings. 174
  • A queen can live for several years. Her average productive life is 2 to 3 years. 17

Research figures describe context and data coverage. They are not a measure of Adopt The Bees impact.