There's More to Honey bee Legs Than Dancing
Let's imagine you're playing a word game like Password, and your secret word is "bee." To help others guess the word, you might say words like "honey," "sting," or "swarm." But would you ever say "legs"? Probably not. Legs don't usually make us think of bees.
However, bees, especially honey bees, have some really cool legs. While they might not have as many legs as millipedes or as long legs as harvestmen, their legs are incredibly useful. Honey bee legs are like tiny Swiss army knives, packed with tools for all sorts of tasks.
An insect's thorax serves as its transportation hub
Now, when it comes to insects, the thorax is like their transportation centre. Just like all insects, honey bees have six legs, and these legs come out from the thorax near the wings. But here's the interesting part: each pair of legs on a honey bee is different from the others, and each pair does a unique job to help the bee with all its tasks.
Sure, bees use their legs for walking and dancing, but they can also do some things that might surprise you. For example, a honey bee's legs, including its little feet, can actually taste and smell things! That's pretty amazing for legs and feet, right?
All six legs share the same features
Now, let's talk about what all bee legs have in common before we dive into the differences. First, all bee legs have five parts. Starting from the thorax and moving out, there's the coxa, trochanter, femur, tibia, and tarsus. Some of these names might sound unfamiliar, but you have similar parts in your own legs.
Think about it: you have a femur in your upper leg and a tibia in your lower leg, and they meet at your knee joint. You even have a protective plate covering your knee called a kneecap or patella. Well, guess what? A bee has six knees in the same spots where your femur and tibia meet. However, honey bees don't have the same kind of protective shield at the base of their rear tibia that some other bees do. Ground-dwelling bees use these shields to help them dig without slipping.
Five leg segments or six?
At the very end of your lower leg, you have a foot made up of many small bones that help with balance and movement. Similarly, a bee's foot, also called the tarsus, has five subsegments that assist with balance and movement.
These five subsegments in a bee's tarsus are known as tarsomeres. The first one, closest to the bee's body, is called the basitarsus, and the last one is called the pretarsus or distitarsus, which is like the bee's toe. In honey bees, the far end of the pretarsus has two claws, known as tarsal claws.
Bee legs come in different lengths
Even though all six legs of honey bees have the same parts, each pair of legs can be a different length. It's not surprising because worker bee legs are different from queen bee legs, which are also different from drone bee legs. Each type of bee has a specific role in the colony, so their legs evolved to fit that role.
In worker bees, the front legs are the shortest, followed by the middle legs, and then the hind legs. Queen bees have a similar pattern, but their legs are longer overall because they have bigger bodies. The queen bee also spreads her legs out like a water strider, making them look even longer.
Around the hive, both worker bees and drones keep their legs tucked under their bodies. When bees fly long distances, they also tuck their legs away, but workers extend their legs before landing, much like an airplane's landing gear.
All insect legs follow a similar plan, but they have special features that help them live in their unique environments. Different types of bees have their own twists on these parts, which can help scientists figure out what kind of bee they're looking at.
There is a bee leg for every purpose
Except for a few exceptions, honey bees use their legs much like we use our hands and feet. Here are some everyday tasks for the three pairs of honey bee legs:
1. Walking, running, landing, and dancing: Honey bees can take a casual stroll on the landing board, walk vertically on walls, or even frolic across the ceiling just because they can. When they land with a load of cargo, their legs have built-in shock absorbers and sticky pads to make sure they land safely and gently. And when it's time to dance, their legs work together like a finely tuned machine, making dances like "allemande left" and "promenade right" look easy.
2. Grasping: Sometimes, a bee needs to hold on tight. Whether it's when the wind is tossing her around a flower, when she's helping build honeycomb, or when she's dealing with unwanted drones, those tarsal claws on her legs come in really handy.
3. Grooming and scratching: Bees use their bristly legs to comb across their bodies, collecting pollen and getting rid of dirt and grime. Occasionally, bees seem to scratch themselves, just like we do. Some scientists even think that European honey bees are good at grooming away tracheal mites, something we haven't paid much attention to lately.
4. Tasting and smelling: Honey bees have special sensors for taste and smell. We usually find these sensors on their mouthparts and antennae, but surprisingly, they're also on their legs. Tiny hair-like sensors called sensilla can detect the taste and smell of things the bee walks on. The bee's brain gets this information and decides whether the substance is good to eat.
5. Collecting pollen: Honey bee legs play a big role in gathering pollen, with many segments having hairs that help collect it. The density, length, and thickness of these hairs vary depending on where they are on the bee's legs and what they're used for. Some legs are better suited for certain jobs, so let's take a closer look at each pair of legs and their special tools.
Honey bee foreleg characteristics
Even though the forelegs of honey bees are the shortest pair, they have some important jobs to do. For instance, it's the foreleg's tarsi that have tiny sensors for tasting and smelling things.
What's really neat is that each foreleg comes with a built-in antenna cleaner. This cleaner has two parts: a small round groove on the basitarsus with stiff hairs and a matching bump on the tibia.
Here's how it works: When a bee wants to clean her antenna, she lifts her foreleg over it and bends her leg. This action makes the bump on the tibia close the groove, creating a snug ring around her antenna. Then she pulls her antenna through this ring, and it scrapes off any pollen or dirt stuck to it.
Bees are pretty particular about keeping their antennae clean because these little sensors help them feel, smell, and taste things in their world. Since antennae are so important, they need to be kept in tip-top shape, and the clever design of the forelegs makes sure of that.
Besides cleaning their antennae, honey bees also use their forelegs to get rid of pollen on their faces and compound eyes. The tiny hairs on their eyes help keep the pollen away from the eye surface, making it easier to clean.
The Middle Legs of a Honey Bee: Not So Boring After All!
Some folks might call the mid-legs of a honey bee boring, but they're actually quite important. These two mid-legs play a crucial role in helping the bee stay balanced and steady. You see, we humans do just fine with two legs, and most animals get by with four, but insects like bees need a bit more support because they often walk in tricky places.
Bees have to walk on wobbly flowers, delicate petals, and narrow stems. They need to navigate the edges of honeycombs, which have deep holes all around, and they even walk on things like duckweed and pond scum (that filamentous algae stuff). Plus, they're not afraid to fight. Bees defend their homes from intruders and give unruly drones the boot when it's time. In all these situations, those extra mid-legs help them move and stay agile.
The mid-legs also come in handy when the bee is collecting pollen from flowers. They can hold onto things like stamens while the front legs do the pollen-gathering. And when it's time to clean pollen off the bee's body and pass it back to the rear legs' pollen baskets, the mid-legs pitch in.
But here's the cool part: honey bees can even "rear up" a bit, kind of like how a horse does. When they need to fight with their front legs and mandibles, the mid-legs and rear legs team up to keep them balanced and steady.
As helpful as the mid-legs are, a honey bee can still do her job for the colony if she loses one of them. However, if she loses one of her back legs or one of her front legs, she won't be able to function well and won't survive for long. So, those mid-legs might not be flashy, but they're definitely essential!
The Awesome Rear Legs of Honey Bees
If you think the mid-legs are dull, wait until you hear about the rear legs – they're anything but boring. The rear legs are easy to spot because of their pollen baskets. But what's even cooler than the baskets themselves is the clever tool inside them.
Both rear legs have a hidden device called a "pollen press" for loading those pollen baskets. This press has two flat plates connected on one side, like a hinge. One plate is at the far end of the tibia (that's like a bee's knee), and the other one is on the basitarsus.
Here's how it works: When a honey bee bends her leg, these plates separate, creating an open space. She then gathers up all the pollen from her body and places it on the inside of her hind leg's basitarsus. To get the pollen into the press, she uses stiff bristles on the edge of the press, which we call a "pollen rake." She cleans the left leg with the right and the right leg with the left until the open press is packed with pollen.
When you see a bee busily working her rear legs while keeping her front and middle legs still, this is often what she's up to. She moves really quickly, cleaning, brushing, and loading the press. To finish the job, all she has to do is straighten her leg, and the plates squeeze together, pushing the pollen up into the pollen basket. It's kind of like squeezing toothpaste from a tube – when you press the sides, the paste comes out the top. In this case, when the plates come together, the pollen flows into the basket. Even though it might seem the other way around, the pollen basket is filled from the bottom.
So, every time the bee cleans the pollen from her body, she pushes it down into the basitarsus of her rear legs and then into the press before giving it another squeeze. Isn't that pretty cool?
Honey Bee Legs: Team Players in Bee Life
While the legs of honey bees have unique parts that can handle some tasks on their own, they often team up for various activities. Here are a few tasks where multiple sets of legs come into play:
1. **Walking**: Just like us, honey bees need their legs to walk. The bee's nervous system makes sure all six legs move in harmony to avoid getting tangled up. Imagine how tricky it would be if you tripped over your own two feet—now picture having six!
2. **Pollen Packing**: Bees gather pollen all over their bodies while foraging. To collect it efficiently, they work as a team. The front legs pass the pollen to the middle legs, which then hand it off to the rear legs. This transfer often involves legs crossing over from one side to the other as they clean up. When you watch a honey bee packing pollen, you'll see all six legs working together seamlessly.
3. **Festooning**: The tarsal claws on all six feet help bees hold onto objects or each other. When worker bees form a festoon—a delicate-looking scaffold—they grab onto each other's legs to create intricate chains. Thanks to their strong and flexible legs, bees can access places that would otherwise be hard to reach.
4. **Pheromone Distribution**: Each of the six feet plays a role in spreading footprint pheromones used for communication and colony regulation. When a worker bee walks on a flower petal or near the hive entrance, her hive mates can "read" these signals to know they're in the right place.
5. **Washboarding**: During washboarding, many bees gather on the front of the hive, facing the same direction, and sway back and forth in a mesmerizing display. If you look closely, you'll notice that the rear four legs stay in one spot while the front legs move forward and backwards. The bees also do something with their mouthparts during this behaviour, which is thought to be related to cleaning, polishing, or managing pathogens. It's a fascinating spectacle to watch, even though the exact purpose isn't fully understood.
So, honey bee legs are not just for walking—they're essential tools for various bee activities, showcasing the incredible teamwork of these remarkable insects.
Make sure your feet are clean before entering
While many beekeepers don't pay much attention to the constant movement of honey bees within the hive, comb honey producers are quite meticulous about it. Why? It's all because of those foragers with their incredibly dirty feet.
When foragers return to the hive from the wide world outside, they bring a bit of that world back with them. They leave footprints all over the place, and this dirt can come from the outside environment or from collecting pollen on their journey from the hive entrance to the honey storage area. These tracks of dirt have a name in beekeeping circles: they're called "travel stains."
For comb honey producers, these travel stains can be a real headache. Instead of seeing pristine white cappings on their honeycomb, potential buyers might encounter streaks of smudged darkness, almost like an old, worn-out dishrag. Sometimes, it looks like smeared egg yolk, definitely not the kind of yellow brick road you'd want to follow. These stains happen because thousands of bee feet deposit layer upon layer of pollen as they travel back and forth, day in and day out.
To tackle this issue, some comb honey producers provide upper entrances for their bees. This helps keep the foragers from picking up debris from the brood box on their way to the honey supers. Others keep a close eye on the frames and promptly remove any that become completely capped to prevent further travel stain development. It's all about ensuring that the comb honey looks as appealing as possible to potential customers.
Next time you're observing your honey bees, take a closer look at those intricate and often underestimated legs. Try to understand what they're up to, how they work together, and where they store their tools.
Honey bee legs are a remarkable example of how even the smallest and seemingly insignificant parts of nature can make a huge difference. The complexity and versatility of honey bee legs and their various abilities serve as a reminder to appreciate the little things in life that we often overlook.
