worker beeIt is one of the three types of bees.[6]The worker bee is a sexually immature female bee,[2]It is the most important species in the bee colony, and the individual is smaller than the queen bee and drone;The body is grayish brown, and the head, chest and back are densely covered with grayish yellow fine hairs;The head is slightly triangular, with a pair of compound eyes, three single eyes, a pair of antennae, and knee shaped bending;Pollen collecting structures were found at the thigh, tibia and tarsal nodes;The abdomen is conical, the back is yellowish brown, 1-4 segments have black links, the end is sharp, toxic glands and chelating needles;There are four pairs of wax plates on the abdomen, and there are wax glands inside, which secrete wax.[3]
Worker bees are distributed all over the world, and there are many tropical and subtropical species.[4]Most of the work in the bee colony is undertaken by worker bees, mainly responsible for feeding small larvae and queen bees, cleaning the hive, dragging dead bees or debris, tamping pollen, making honey, building nests, filling pores with propolis, guarding the hive, etc.Worker bees are female individuals developed from the fertilized eggs in the worker's hive, but their reproductive organs are not fully developed.Although the life span of worker bees is longer than that of male bees, it is generally only a few months, and rarely can survive a year. The life span of worker bees is 4 to 6 weeks in summer, and 3 to 6 months in winter. The length of their life span has a great relationship with the work intensity and the colony potential.[3]
The worker bees secrete royal jelly with complex components for the queen to eat, so as to maintain the synthesis of queen pheromone.[5]The worker bees have gone through a short life, and it seems that they have never stopped working. It can be said that they work every day except eating and sleeping. They work tirelessly.The worker bee deserves the title of "industrious".[3]
The worker bee is the main species in the colony, and its individual is smaller than the queen bee and the drone.
Apis animal worker bee
1. The body is grayish brown, and the head, chest and back are densely covered with grayish yellow fine hairs;
2. The head is slightly triangular, with 1 pair of compound eyes, 3 single eyes, 1 pair of antennae, and knee shaped bending;El device is developed and suitable forchewAnd sucking;
3. There are 3 pairs of feet with pollen collecting structures at the thigh, tibia and tarsal joints;
3. The abdomen is conical, the back is yellowish brown, 1-4 segments have black links, the end is sharp, toxic glands and chelating needles;
4. EpigastricWax plate4 pairs, internalWax gland, secrete wax.Adult bees weigh 80mg and body length is 10-13mm[1]。
A female individual developed from the fertilized eggs in a worker's cell, but the reproductive organs are not fully developed.The body of worker bees is smaller than that of queen bees and drones, but the number of worker bees in the colony is extremely large, with tens of thousands of them, sometimes up to 100000 or more.Although the life span of worker bees is longer than that of male bees, it is generally only a few months, and rarely can survive a year. The life span of worker bees is 4 to 6 weeks in summer, and 3 to 6 months in winter. The length of their life span has a great relationship with the work intensity and the colony potential.
Worker bees are worthy of the title of "industrious", because after a short life, they do not seem to have stopped working.can
In other words, they work every day except eating and sleeping. They work tirelessly.
The worker bees account for the majority of the colony, and most of the work in the colony is also undertaken by the worker bees.According to their growth and development, worker bees can be divided into young bees, young bees, adult bees and old bees, and there is a certain division of labor with different ages.Among them, the young bees mainly refer to the worker bees 1 to 8 days after eclosion, which mainly carry out work in the nest, including heat preservation, wind blowing, cleaning the nest room, preparing honey powder, feeding larvae and nest recognition flying;Young bees refer to worker bees aged 8 to 20 days, mainly responsible for feeding young larvae and queen bees, cleaning honeycombs, dragging dead bees or debris, tamping pollenmake honey, building nests, filling pores with propolis, guarding honeycombs, etc;The adult bee refers to the main worker bee engaged in collecting nectar, pollen, gum, water, etc;The elderly bees after overwintering are mostly engaged in searching for honey sources and collecting water.
Characteristics of living environment
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The external environment has a great impact on the life of worker bees.It is mainly affected by temperature, humidity, light and other climatic factors.
1. Temperature
Apis animal worker bee
The worker bee is a temperature changing animal, and the temperature affects the honey secretion of the worker bee.Therefore, under the same conditions of honey source, the worker bees' attendance varies with the temperature, especially when the temperature changes greatly.However, the colony composed of thousands of bees has the unique ability to regulate body temperature of thermostatic animals.The more the number of worker bees is, the more stable the temperature in the nest is, and it can be kept within the range of 34-35 ℃. Too high or too low temperature is not conducive to their development and reproduction.In summer, the number of eggs laid by the queen often exceeds 1500 per day, the number of eclosion of new bees greatly exceeds the number of deaths of old bees, the number of worker bees gradually increases, and the colony reaches its peak.
The temperature varies greatly throughout the year. In order to survive, the worker bees adjust the temperature in the chamber in various ways.In hot summer, when the temperature in the hive exceeds the appropriate temperature range, the worker bees go out to collect water and evaporate the water (fan) for cooling. When the hive is exposed to the sun and the radiation heat is too high, the worker bees leave the hive spleen, gather in a larger space in the nest and pile up at the entrance of the nest to emit heat.
Workers born in spring can only survive for 38 days.On the contrary, worker bees born between August and November can live in the hive for a whole winter, that is, for six months. There are only 40000 bees in the winter colony, because there are neither larvae nor drones in the winter colony.Bees store energy in their fat bodies to cope with bad seasons.Bees are cold-blooded animals. They will die when the temperature is lower than 8 ℃. If the temperature is lower than 18 ℃, worker bees will gather around the queen bee to warm each other.The temperature was maintained at 35 ℃ in the bee colony.Bees suck stored honey for nutrition.In order to keep the honeycomb clean, no excretion is allowed in the honeycomb.From January 15, the queen bee will ovulate again.
2. Influence of light
Sunshine can stimulate worker bees to go out. The collecting season is the long sunshine season of a year. The hive should be placed in a cool place with the nest door facing south.The worker bees have phototaxis. The bee farm should be in a dark environment at night, and should not be placed in a place with sufficient light sources, so as to avoid causing worker bees to rush out of their nests and cause unnecessary losses.
3. Other climatic factors
The life of worker bees requires flowing fresh air. When the air is not circulating, the bees are likely to show restless state, especially in hot and stuffy occasions.Showers or sudden sun exposure also have a great impact on the safety of bees.In the windy coastal areas, worker bee collecting activities are forced to fly close to the ground. Therefore, attention must be paid to the frequency of wind force and direction, as well as the natural or artificial barriers within the range when selecting the site.
4. Information exchange characteristics
Worker bees have formed an information exchange system that can adapt to survival and solve problems in social life.In order to survive and develop, the whole colony can carry out activities in an orderly and coordinated manner.Here we mainly introduce the pheromone of worker bees.
Worker bees live in dark hives for a long time. In addition to relying on contact, voice and dance for communication, many information is transmitted through chemical substances.Pheromone is a chemical substance secreted by the exocrine glands of insects to the outside of the body, which acts on other individuals of the same species through contact between individuals or air transmission and causes specific behavioral or physiological reactions, so it is also called exohormone.The pheromones transmitted between individuals of the same kind are a special "language" for them, and the receiving individuals can understand the information code contained therein, so as to produce behavioral or physiological responses conducive to the group.
reproduction
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Apis animal worker bee
Some researchers have found that the power of the queen bee may also be out of control. Some worker bees cheat the queen bee by breeding to extend their lives.A study of the Brazilian honeybee shows that some drones are not the sons of the queen bee, but the sons of the worker bee.The colony usually has about 1500 worker bees and is ruled by a queen bee.The study, published in the journal Molecular Ecology, explored nearly 600 drones from 45 colonies, and studied their genes to find out their origins.The results showed that 23% of drones were not descendants of queen bees, but descendants of worker bees.Worker bees usually cannot mate, but can lay unfertilized eggs, which can develop into drones.In order to ensure its dominance, the queen bee often eats what the worker bee gave birth toegg。
The only advantage of worker bee reproduction is that by doing so, their lifespan can be extended by three times, almost as long as that of the queen bee.This is because the breeding worker bees work less and no longer perform dangerous tasks, such as foraging and collecting honey.
After the colony loses its queen, it is easy for worker bees to lay eggs.Generally, worker bees can be found laying eggs within 3-5 days after losing the king.The worker bees lay eggs dispersedly. They have several eggs in one nest, and they are very confused.These eggs are notZygoteEven if the eggs hatch, they can only produce small drones.
After finding that worker bees lay eggs, it is easier to attract a mature queen or a new egg laying queen as early as possible.If the attractive queen bee has difficulties, the original box can be moved about 0.5m away in the morning, and an empty box can be placed on the original position, so that the worker bee of the worker bee spawning colony can fly back to the original site.In the evening, all the workersChaopiHe proposed to leave the bee in the original box and starve all night, and let it fly back to the original site the next day.Then add spleen to adjust, and at the same time attractqueen beeOr mature Wangtai.When the new queen bee lays eggs or the egg laying queen is successfully induced, the egg laying worker bees will disappear naturally.However, it is necessary to deal with abnormal daughter spleen. The protruding drone chamber is cut off with a knife, and the larvae are shaken out with a honey machine;The eggs laid by worker bees are sprayed with alcohol, or soaked with syrup and returned to the bees for cleaning, or poured with 3% sodium carbonate solution into the spleen, and then separated with a honey machine. The spleen is washed with clean water and dried in the shade before use.If the worker bees lay eggs for more than 20 days, there are a large number of drones andDroneSpleen, rightswarmAnd can only be merged into other colonies dispersedly.
