Most of us have been stung by a bee, and we know it’s not much fun. But maybe we also felt a tinge of regret or vindication, knowing the offending bee would die. Right? Well, that’s not the case for 99.96% of bee species.
Only eight out of almost 21,000 bee species in the world die when they sting. Another subset can’t sting at all, and the majority of bees can sting as often as they want. But there’s even more to it than that.
To understand the intricacies of bees and their stinging potential, we will need to talk about the shape of stingers, bee genitals, and attitude.
Our beloved, and deadly, honeybees
What you most likely remember getting stung by is the European honeybee (Apis mellifera). Native to Europe and Africa, these bees are found almost everywhere in the world today.
They are one of eight honeybee species worldwide, with Apis bees representing just 0.04 percent of total bee species. And yes, these bees die after they sting you.
But why?
We could say they die for queen and colony, but the actual reason these bees die after stinging is because of their barbed stingers. Most of the time, these brutal barbs will prevent the bee from pulling the stinger out.
Instead, the bee leaves her appendage embedded in your skin and flies off without it. After the bee is gone, to later die from her wound, the stinger remains lodged there, pumping more venom.
Beyond that, bees and wasps (probably mostly European honeybees) are Australia’s deadliest venomous animals. In 2017-18, 12 out of 19 deaths due to venomous animals were caused by these little insects. (Only a small proportion of people are deathly allergic.)
Talk about good PR.
So what is a stinger?
A stinger, at least in most bees, wasps, and ants, is actually a tube for laying eggs (ovipositor) that has also been adapted for violent defense. This group of stinging insects, the aculeate wasps (yes, bees and ants are technically a kind of wasp), have been stabbing away in self-defense for 190 million years.
You could say it’s their defining feature.
With so much evolution literally under their belts, they’ve also developed a diversity of stinging strategies. But let’s just get back to the bees.
The sting of the European honeybee is about as painful as a bee sting gets, scoring a 2 out of 4 on the Schmidt insect sting pain index.
But most other bees don’t pack the same punch — though I have heard some painful reviews from less-than-careful colleagues. On the flipside, most bee species can sting you as many times as they like because their stingers lack the barbs found in honeybees. However, if they keep at it, they might eventually run out of venom.
Even more surprising is that hundreds of bee species have lost their ability to sting entirely.
Can you tell who’s packing?
Globally, there are 537 species (about 2.6 percent of all bee species) of “stingless bees” in the tribe Meliponini. Australia has only 11 of these species (in the genera Austroplebeia and Tetragonula). These peaceful little bees can also be kept in hives and make honey.
Stingless bees can still defend their nests, when offended, by biting. But you might think of them more as a nuisance than a deadly stinging swarm.
Australia also has the only bee family (there are a total of seven families globally) that’s found on a single continent. This is the Stenotritidae family, which comprises 21 species. These gentle and gorgeous giants (14-19 mm in length, up to twice as long as European honeybees) also get around without a functional stinger.
The astute reader might have realized something by this point in the article. If stingers are modified egg-laying tubes … what about the boys? Male bees, of all bee species, lack stingers and have, ahem, other anatomy instead. However, some male bees will still make a show of “stinging” if you try to grab them.
Some male wasps can even do a bit of damage, though they have no venom to produce a sting.
Why is it always the honeybees?
So if the majority of bees can sting, why is it always the European honeybee having a go? There are a couple of likely answers to that question.
First, the European honeybee is very abundant across much of the world. Their colonies typically have around 50,000 individuals, and they can fly 10 km to forage.
In comparison, most wild bees only forage very short distances (less than 200 m) and must stay close to their nest. So those hardworking European honeybees are really putting in the miles.
Second, European honeybees are social. They will literally die to protect their mother, sisters, and brothers. In contrast, the vast majority (and wasps) are actually solitary (single mums doing it for themselves) and lack the altruistic aggression of their social relatives.
A complicated relationship
We have an interesting relationship with our European honeybees. They can be deadly, are non-native (across much of the world), and will aggressively defend their nests. But they are crucial for crop pollination and, well, their honey is to die for.
But it’s worth remembering these are the tiny minority in terms of species. We have thousands of native bee species (more than 1,600 found so far in Australia) that are more likely to buzz off than go in for a sting.
James B. Dorey, Lecturer in Biological Sciences, University of Wollongong; Amy-Marie Gilpin, Lecturer in Invertebrate Ecology, Western Sydney University, and Rosalyn Gloag, School of Life and Environmental Sciences Research Fellow, University of Sydney
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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