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Inside: The six legs of the honey bee do far more than stroll and dance. They carry out dozens of chores that have an effect on each side of honey bee life.
We seldom contemplate the legs of bees
Think about you’re enjoying a phrase affiliation sport comparable to Password and your secret phrase is “bee.” The clues you would possibly give to elicit that phrase embody “honey,” “sting,” and “swarm.” However “legs”? By no means. Nothing about legs reminds us of bees.
This text first appeared in American Bee Journal, Quantity 163 No. 6, June 2023.
But bees, particularly honey bees, have a number of the niftiest legs within the animal kingdom. Though they don’t maintain a candle to millipedes for amount or harvestmen for size, they beat them hands-down for operate. Honey bee legs are like mini Swiss military knives: creatively designed and compactly saved instruments for each function.
The thorax is an insect’s transportation hub
Like all bugs, honey bees have six legs, every arising from the thorax alongside the wings. However in honey bees, every leg pair has a singular construction, making every pair noticeably totally different from the others. And every pair performs distinctive features for the multitasking honey bee.
Though bees use all three pairs for strolling and dancing, in addition they carry out uncommon feats we seldom affiliate with legs. For instance, a honey bee’s legs together with the connected toes (tarsal claws) can style and scent! Now these are really wonderful stunts for legs and toes(s).
Options all six legs have in widespread
Earlier than we take a look at leg variations, let’s take a look at their similarities. First, all bee legs have 5 segments. Starting on the thorax and understanding, we have now the coxa, trochanter, femur, tibia, and tarsus. A few of these elements could also be unfamiliar to you, however some you understand, which makes them simple to study.
For instance, you may have a femur in your higher leg and a tibia in your decrease leg. These come collectively in a joint referred to as the knee. As well as, you may have a protecting plate masking the joint referred to as a kneecap or patella.
As compared, a bee has six knees in precisely the identical place — between every femur and tibia. Though most bee species have a protecting protect (a kneecap of kinds) on the basal finish of the rear tibia, these are conspicuously absent in honey bees. Floor-dwelling bees use these basitibial plates to brace themselves within the grime whereas digging in order that they don’t lose traction or slip and tumble into the outlet.
On the far finish of your human tibia, you may have a foot fabricated from many smaller bones that assist stability and motion. Equally, the bee foot (or tarsus) includes 5 subsegments that assist the bee with stability and motion.
The 5 subsegments of the tarsus are referred to as tarsomeres. The primary tarsomere, closest to the bee’s physique, is known as the basitarsus and the final one is known as the pretarsus or distitarsus (the toe).1 In honey bees, the far (distal) finish of the pretarsus sports activities two claws (referred to as tarsal claws).
5 leg segments or six?
In older publications, it is not uncommon to search out point out of six leg segments as a substitute of 5. The discrepancy entails the tarsus, and whether or not the pretarsus ought to be a separate leg phase or included within the tarsus as a fifth subsegment. For the reason that present literature often names 5 subsegments inside the tarsus, I’m utilizing that conference. Simply keep in mind that you could be see it reported in a different way.
Between the tarsal claws, you could find the arolium, an adhesive pad lined with tiny hairs. The pads are helpful for strolling on vertical or inverted surfaces and enabling the bees to navigate irregular or slippery substrates. The arolium and the tarsal claws are extensions of the pretarsus.
Bee legs come in several lengths
Despite the fact that all six legs of the honey bee have the identical segments, every pair of legs is a unique size. And it’s not stunning to study that employee legs differ from queen legs which differ from drone legs. As a result of every sort of bee has a singular position to play inside the colony, its legs developed to suit the job.
In employee bees, the forelegs are the shortest, adopted by the mid legs, after which the hind legs. The queen’s legs observe the identical sample, however general her legs lengthen farther as a result of she has a much bigger physique. As well as, the queen carries her legs splayed out like a water strider, which makes them seem even longer.
Across the hive, each staff and drones preserve their legs tucked below their our bodies. Bees flying lengthy distances tuck them out of the way in which too, though staff dangle their legs earlier than touchdown, very similar to an airplane’s touchdown gear.
All insect legs observe an analogous mannequin, however they’ve diversifications that assist them with life of their distinctive surroundings. Varied varieties of bees have quirky takes on the identical elements, lots of which may also help taxonomists decide a bee’s genus.
A bee leg for each function
With some evident exceptions, honey bees use their legs like we use our palms and toes. Listed below are some on a regular basis makes use of for 3 pairs of honey bee legs.
- Strolling, working, touchdown, and dancing: Honey bees can go for a leisurely stroll alongside the touchdown board, a vertical wall stroll, or a frolic throughout the ceiling simply because it’s there. When alighting with a load of cargo, the legs function all of the shock absorbers and sticky pads needed for secure and delicate arrival. And better of all, when a bee seems like dancing, all these legs mesh like a finely tooled machine. Allemande left and promenade proper — it’s really easy when you understand the steps.
- Greedy: Occasions are many when a bee simply needs to latch on and maintain tight. When the wind is tossing her flower erratically, when she and her sisters determine to construct a scaffold for comb building, or when drone dispatching seems on the agenda, these tarsal claws are available in mighty useful.
- Grooming and scratching: Bees comb their bristly articulated legs throughout their our bodies to collect pollen and take away accrued grime and dirt. And at times, bees seem to take a scratch similar to everybody else. Some researchers imagine the European honey bee is adept at grooming away tracheal mites, one thing we’ve paid little consideration to lately.2
- Tasting and smelling: Honey bees have a number of receptors for style and scent. We discover some on the mouthparts and antennae, however surprisingly, some are on the tarsi. Hair-like sensory organs referred to as sensilla can detect each the style and odor of issues the bee walks on. The bees ship their findings to the mind, which “decides” if the substance is an appropriate meals supply.
- Pollen gathering: Honey bee legs play a significant position in pollen acquisition, with most segments that includes hairs that facilitate assortment. The density, size, and thickness of hairs range relying on their location and actual function.
Some legs are higher geared up than others for sure jobs, so let’s take a look at every pair of legs and its specialised gear.
Options of the honey bee’s forelegs
Though the forelegs are the honey bee’s shortest pair, what they lack in size they make up in operate. For instance, it’s the foreleg tarsi that harbor the sensilla for style and scent.
As well as, every foreleg has an antenna cleaner constructed proper in. The antenna cleaner includes two elements: a spherical notch within the basitarsus outfitted with stiff hairs, and a corresponding spur on the tibia.
To make it work, a bee merely lifts her foreleg over her personal antenna, after which flexes her leg. This motion makes the spur shut throughout the open notch, locking her antenna in a comfortable ring. Then she pulls her antenna by way of the ring, an motion which scrapes off any pollen and particles caught to it.
Bees clear their antennae continually. The antennae have sensors for feeling, smelling, and tasting — all issues which assist the bee navigate her world. As a result of they’re important, antennae want immaculate cleansing and upkeep. An ingenious pair of forelegs makes this all occur.
As well as, the honey bee makes use of her forelegs to scrub pollen from her face and compound eyes. The hairs on her eyes maintain the pollen away from the attention floor, making them simpler to scrub.
Even with six versatile legs, a honey bee has locations she will’t attain for full grooming. See “Hourglass bees” for a proof.
The boring mid-legs of honey bees
I’ve heard them referred to as boring. Though the mid-legs of the honey bee don’t have any spectacular gear, they’re definitely vital. The 2 mid-legs assist in stability and stability. Though we people do fairly properly with two legs, and most mammals get by with 4, bugs have to stroll in precarious locations.
Bees have to stroll on thrashing flowers, limpish petals, and up slim stems. They have to stroll on the perimeters of honeycombs with deep holes throughout, they usually even stroll on duckweed and pond scum (filamentous algae). As well as, they battle. They battle intruders they usually wrestle drones out of the home when the time is true. In every of those circumstances, that additional pair of legs helps their actions and aids in agility.
The mid-legs additionally assist grasp issues like stamens because the bee collects pollen from flowers: The mid-legs can grasp tight whereas the forelegs have interaction in gathering. As well as, the mid-legs sync with the opposite pairs to scrub pollen from the bee’s physique and go it again towards the pollen baskets on the rear set of legs.
Mid-legs additionally enable “rearing up,” very similar to a horse. The honey bee can battle together with her forelegs and mandibles whereas the mid-legs and rear legs work collectively to supply stability and help.
As helpful because the mid-legs are, a honey bee can proceed to operate as a productive member of the colony if she loses one in every of her mid-legs. Conversely, shedding one again leg or one foreleg ends in incapacitation for the bee and he or she is not going to survive for lengthy.
The rear legs: particularly good for storing and packing
If the mid-legs are boring, the rear legs are something however. The rear legs are the longest and the simplest for us to acknowledge due to their pollen baskets. Though pollen baskets are cool in their very own proper, they don’t maintain a candle to the gear that fills them.
Each rear legs have a secret built-in device for loading pollen baskets. The 2-part mechanism is known as a pollen press. The pollen options two flat plates hinged collectively on one aspect. One plate is on the distal finish (the tip farthest from the physique) of the tibia, whereas the opposite plate is on the basitarsus. Recall that this joint is equal to a knee.
When a honey bee bends her leg, the plates pull aside, and he or she stuffs the open press with pollen that she collects from her physique. First, she scrapes all of the pollen into one place: the within of the hind leg basitarsus. Then she combs it off the basitarsus with stiff bristles lining the sting of the pollen press referred to as a pollen rake. She cleans the left leg with the correct and the correct leg with the left till the open press is filled with pollen.
While you see a honey bee busily working her rear legs whereas standing agency together with her fore- and mid-legs, that is typically what she’s doing. She strikes lightning-fast, cleansing and brushing and loading the press. Then all she must do to complete the job is lengthen these rear legs, one by one.
When she straightens her leg, the plates squeeze collectively, closing towards the pollen and forcing it up into the pollen basket. It’s like a tube of toothpaste: While you squeeze the 2 sides collectively, the paste comes out the highest. Right here, when the 2 plates are squeezed collectively, the pollen flows up into the pollen basket. Though it could appear backward, the pollen basket is definitely crammed from the underside.
Each time the bee grooms the pollen from her physique, she pushes it right down to the within of the basitarsus of the rear legs after which into the press earlier than she offers it one other squeeze. Is that cool or what?
All collectively now: six legs working directly
Whereas the legs of honey bees possess distinctive elements that work independently for some chores, they typically work collectively. The next actions require a number of units of legs.
Strolling: Like different bugs, the nervous system of the bee coordinates the motion of the legs in order that they don’t get twisted up. Anybody who journeys over their very own two toes is aware of how treacherous six might grow to be.
However in line with Caron & Connor in “Honey Bee Biology,” the bees’ six legs operate in units of three, with every set forming a triangle. “The primary and third leg on one aspect work with the center leg of the alternative aspect.”3 I solely seen this as soon as it was identified to me, but it surely nearly eliminates the journey hazard and appears form of freaky.
Pollen packing: One other instance of legs working collectively happens because the bee cleans its physique of pollen. A bee that has been foraging could have pollen throughout, from head to foot. She wants to gather all of it and someway get it within the pollen baskets.
In a easy sequence, the forelegs go the pollen to the mid-legs, which go it to the rear legs, typically crisscrossing backward and forward because the left aspect cleans the correct and vice versa. Watch a honey bee packing pollen and you will note all six legs working in concord.
Festooning: The tarsal claws on all six toes assist the honey bee grasp onto objects or onto one another. When honey bee staff type a festoon — a type of lacy-looking scaffolds — the bees grasp onto one another’s legs to type intricate chains. As a result of the legs are sturdy and versatile, chain constructing offers bees easy accessibility to areas that might in any other case be tough to succeed in.
Pheromone distribution: All six toes ship the footprint pheromones used for communication and colony regulation. When a employee walks throughout a flower petal, or throughout the doorway to her hive, hive mates can “learn” this sign and know they’re in the correct place.
Washboarding: One other use for all six legs directly is washboarding. Throughout washboarding, you will note many bees on the entrance of the hive, maybe a whole bunch. All of them face the identical course and rock forwards and backwards in a mesmerizing show. Look fastidiously and you’ll see the rear 4 legs keep in a single spot, whereas the forelegs step ahead and again, ahead and again.
Together with the steps, the bees do one thing with their mouthparts. This baffling habits is considered associated to cleansing, sharpening, or pathogen administration, but nobody is aware of for positive. What we do know is that it’s nice enjoyable to observe.
Please clear your toes earlier than entry
Most beekeepers fear little about all of the strolling honey bees do inside the hive. Nevertheless, producers of comb honey obsess over it. The issue? Foragers have soiled toes. Extremely soiled toes.
As foragers enter the hive from the good outdoor, they depart footprints in every single place. The grime could come from outdoors the hive or the bees could acquire grime and bits of pollen on the trek from the hive entrance to the honey storage space. In any case, these soiled trails have a reputation: “journey stain.”
Journey stains can harm a comb honey producer’s backside line. As a substitute of gleaming white cappings, the potential purchaser may even see a smeared darkness, paying homage to a senescent dishrag. Or generally the stain resembles smeared egg yolk — just like the yellow brick street, solely not in a great way. These smudges consequence from layer upon layer of pollen laid down by 1000’s of toes touring forwards and backwards, day after day.
Some comb honey producers give their bees higher entrances to maintain the foragers from stepping in brood field particles on the way in which to the supers. Others preserve a detailed watch on the frames, instantly eradicating any that grow to be fully capped.
After I visited a daffodil breeding heart in Oregon, I needed to step in a bleach bucket earlier than getting into the fields to forestall soil contamination. I’ve typically thought that comb honey producers want an analogous foot bathtub for his or her bees to maintain them clear sufficient for the job.
The six-pack that retains honey bees on their toes
The following time you’re watching your honey bees, look carefully at these advanced underrated legs. Attempt to determine what they’re doing, how they coordinate, and the place they’re saved.
Honey bee legs present an ideal instance of the big affect that seemingly insignificant elements of nature can have. The complexity and adaptableness of honey bee legs (and feats) remind me to understand these small issues that usually go unnoticed.
References
- Michener CD. 2007. Bees of the World, 2nd Ed. Johns Hopkins College Press. Baltimore, MD.
- Danka RF and Villa JD. 1997. Proof of auto-grooming as a mechanism of honey bee resistance to tracheal mite infestation. Journal of Apicultural Analysis 37(1): 39-46C.
- Caron DM and Connor LJ. 2013. Honey Bee Biology and Beekeeping. Wicwas Press. Kalamazoo, MI.
About Me
I backed my love of bee science with a bachelor’s diploma in Agronomic Crops and a grasp’s in Environmental Research. I write extensively about bees, together with a present column in American Bee Journal and previous columns in Two Million Blossoms and Bee Craft. I’ve endured a number of programs in melittology and made intensive identifications of North American bees for iNaturalist and different organizations. My grasp beekeeper certificates issued from U Montana. I’m additionally an English nerd. Extra right here.
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