The body of a bee is divided into three main parts: the head, thorax, and abdomen. On the head, there are a pair of antennae, a pair of eyes, and an additional three simple eyes (ocelli), a mouth with two mandibles used for sucking and biting.
The thorax is attached to two pairs of wings and three pairs of legs. The worker bees, which constitute the majority of the bee population, are sexually undeveloped females. In the abdomen of a worker bee, there are wax glands, and the wax secreted is deposited on the bee’s body in the form of scales. The legs of the bee have hairs called scopa, which are used to collect pollen. The bee carries the pollen to the hive in a special pocket located at the base of its hind legs, known as the pollen basket.
At the end of the abdomen, the bee has a sharply pointed stinger that resembles an arrowhead. When it stings a creature with flexible skin, such as humans or other mammals, it cannot retract the stinger, which often results in the bee’s death. At the base of the stinger, there is also a venom sac. Unlike the stinger of worker bees, the queen bee’s stinger is smooth, allowing her to sting multiple times. Male bees, on the other hand, do not have a stinger or apollen basket at all.
