V is for Venation

Today’s letter V is for Venation. Venation is an arrangement or system of veins, such as in leaves or insect wings. This is heavily used for species identification, as the wing patterns of different species are rather distinctive. The University of Florida has a great article

Today’s letter V is for Venation. Venation is an arrangement or system of veins, such as in leaves or insect wings. This is heavily used for species identification, as the wing patterns of different species are rather distinctive. The University of Florida has a great article on the Halictidae family of bees that includes close-up images of wing venation.

U is for Urohalictus

Today’s letter U is for Urohalictus, a subgenus of the sweat bee genus Lasioglossum. I had to dig deep for this one, as U words for bees are few and far between. According to Wikipedia, Lasioglossum is the largest of the bee genera, with over 1800 species. They are part of the family Halictidae, which is perhaps where the name Urohalictus derives from.

Swarm season

A break from our alphabet games to mention that it is swarm season in Virginia. I put a swarm trap up on a grape trellis. This past Saturday a swarm came to visit. I took this photo as they were moving into the hive. There are lot of bees, but without a home yet they are not at all aggressive.

T is for Tarsus

Today’s letter T is for Tarsus, the final segment of an insect’s leg. In the honey bee, the tarsus has five segments, or tarsomeres. The legs of the honey bee are rather amazing, from storing pollen to cleaning antennae to walking vertically or even upside down.

S is for Stinger

Today’s letter S is for Stinger. We have talked about stingers before, especially in our 12 Days of Honey Bees. There we discussed how stingers evolved from the egg-laying ovipositor and thus only appear in females, but we didn’t get into the structure a stinger very much. Of course, stinger is also a great S word, so how could I resist.

R is for Rectum

Today’s letter R is for rectum. Yes, indeed, bees have a rectum and they certainly poop. In the honey bee, the rectum is unusual in that it can expand and contract as needed. In winter, when the workers may be trapped in the hive for long periods, the rectum accumulates waste matter and water while the bee stays warm in the hive. When a warm day (above 45 F or 7 C) arrives, she will take a quick trip outside the hive to relieve herself.

Q is for Queen

Today’s letter Q is for Queen, of course. For a long time folks thought a beehive must be ruled by a male bee. In fact, in ancient Egypt the bee was a symbol for the King of Lower Egypt. It wasn’t until the 1600’s that the biologist Jan Swammerdam provided evidence that the Queen was, in fact, female and the mother of all worker bees.

P is for Pollination

Today’s letter P is for Pollination. Not a bee part, I know, but it’s March 1 in Virginia and the flowers are getting ready to burst. We have crocus, daffodils, and creeping speedwell blooming so far, and more on the way. It looks like we may have some warm weather on Sunday, in which case I may check to see if the bees are bringing in nectar from the neighborhood.

O is for Ocelli

Today’s letter O is for Ocelli. Honey bees, and bees in general, have three ocelli in the middle of their head to detect light and movement. These are also referred to as simple eyes because they lack the complex structure of compound or vertebrate eyes. There is no retina and they often have a single lens. So they are not really “simply” though perhaps more simple than other types of eyes.

N is for Nosonov

Today’s letter N is for Nosonov. The Nosonov pheromone, as you might guess, is produced by the Nosonov gland. This important honey bee pheromone is emitted by worker bees to orient other workers to the colony. It used during swarming to direct workers to the new home, and whenever workers find themselves confused or disoriented as to the location of the hive. If you see a bee at the entrance with her butt up in the air, they are likely emitting this pheromone.