ENVS 2210 Lecture 4: Functional Honey Bee Morphology (1)
15 Sep 2018
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Document Summary
Known as morphological castes: worker (non-reproductive female), drone (male) and queen (reproductive female) External skeleton composed of hardened plates (made out of chitin) connected by membranes to provide the insect with a structure and movement. Function: provides protection, support and attachments for muscles and organs and prevents dehydration. Made up of plates like mosaic, so it is not totally rigid, providing movement, but it is rigid enough to provide protection, support, etc. When the bee just came out, the bee is very soft, exoskeleton needs to expose to air to be hardened. Three body segments: head, thorax and abdomen, each with sub-segments. Contains sensory and digestive structures: eyes, antennae and mouthparts. Eyes: two types; three ocelli or simple eyes, and two compound eyes. There are hair on the compound eyes. Simple eyes on top of head (ocelli) We know bees don"t see with it, probably light sensors and orientation during flight but we do not know much about the function.
