Anatomy Of A Bumble Bee

They have three main body parts. Lets take a closer look at the beautiful makeup of the bee.

Bumble Bee Insect Anatomy And Bee Colonies Science Hub 4 Kids

This websites purpose is to encourage interest in the study of bee anatomy.

Anatomy of a bumble bee. Their body plan consists of a head thorax and abdomen each containing their own specific segments. Chitin is a nitrogenous polysaccharide insoluble in water alcohol dilute acids and digestive juices. The anatomy of the bee has a stunning efficiency.

The head houses the brain a collection of about 950000 neurons. Bees breathe through a complex structure of network of tracheas and air sacs. Internally a series of nerve cells extend from the brain to concentrations of nerve tissue in each body segment ganglia constituting a central nervous system.

Bumblebees are large hairy bees and are close relatives of the well known honeybee. Knowing how bees function requires a knowledge of the arrangement of the internal organ systems. Bee anatomy they have a hard outer shell called an exoskeleton.

They have two pairs of wings. Workers queens and males. The body also has three sections the head the thorax and the abdomen.

Oxygen is vacuumed into the body through openings on each segment spiracles by the expansion of the air sacs then the spiracles are closed and air sacs are compressed to force the air into smaller tracheas which become smaller and smaller until individual tubules reach individual cells. In most cases queens and workers have similar coloration and physical features except that queens tend to be much larger. They have three pairs of legs used for walking.

A bees body is also covered in lots of fuzzy branched hair which collects pollen and helps regulate body temperature. Most species of bumblebee live in colonies but their colonies are much smaller than the honey bees or wasps who can have up to several thousand individuals the bumblebee colony will only consist of around 50 150 individuals. Both queens and workers are female.

With honeybee anatomy every element has a clear well defined purpose to the point of being fine tuned for the differences in roles between the worker drone and queen bees. As with all insects the bumblebee has what is called an exoskeleton ie. Males can differ in coloration from females of the same species.

There is no liquid waste in bees as their small body size makes water conservation a necessity. There are three different types of bumble bees you will encounter. Bumble bees fall under the family apidae their famous cousins being the honey bees and organized into the genus bombus.

On the head of the bumble bee there exists a pair of antennae eyes and mandibles. Its skeleton is on the outside and is made up of hard plates of chitin. They have a pair of antennae that are attached to their head.

Bumblebees Blooms For Bees