ENVS 2210 MIDTERM EXAM
1) What is the latin name for the Western honey Bee, of Europe and Africa? What does
it mean?
2) What did Linnaeus try to rename it to? Why did he fail?
3) Why is the term mellifera inaccurate?
1) Apis mellifera L., 1758 (scientific name in italics or underlined); 'honey-carrying bee',
Linnaeus named it, 1758 was the year Linnaeus assigned this name
2) Apis mellifica, 'the honey-making bee' in 1761 (but rules of classification do not allow
this-can change the genus but not the species)
3) means 'honey-carrying' and bees don't carry honey (they collect nectar)
1) To which kingdom do honeybees belong? Why?
2) To which phylum do honeybees belong? Explain traits of this phylum.
3) Examples of other arthropoda?*
1) animalia (they are multicellular and motile)
2) arthropoda (have an exoskeleton, segmented body, paired segmented appendages,
one pair of segmented antennae, usually 1-2 pairs of wings)
3) lobsters, crabs, insects, ticks, and mites
1) To which class do honeybees belong? Explain traits of this class.
2) To which order do honeybees belong? Explain traits of this order.
3) To which family do honeybees belong? Explain traits of this family*
1) insecta: three body parts (head, thorax, abdomen), 3 pairs of legs (fore, mid, and
hind), 1 pair of segmented antennae, usually 1-2 pairs of wings (but there are flightless
insects)
2) hymenoptera: (bees, wasps, ants, and sawflies), 2 pairs of membranous wings (the
origin of the order name) usually folded, female with ovipositor for laying eggs (modified
into a 'sting' in most bees, most ants, and some wasps)
3) apidae-social bees (7 families of bees are currently recognized): honeybees,
bumblebees, orchid bees, stingless bees, and some others, closest ancestors of bees
are wasps, ancestral wasps collected animal prey; bees are specialized to collect pollen
as their source of protein and lipids, most bees are hairy insects (branched hairs on
body); hairs pick up pollen from flowers
1) To which genus do honeybees belong? Describe traits of this genus.
2) Describe a honeybee's eye
3) What do the hairs on a bee's eye do?*
1) Apis: 9-12 species recognized today, all species live in Asia except for Apis mellifera,
honeybee combs have hexagonal cells and are made completely from beeswax
secreted by worker bees, honeybees are the only bees with hairy eyes
2) each individual compound eye is made up of about 6900 hexagonal facets, each
containing its own lens to receive light, a pigmented cone to concentrate and focus it,
and sensory retinal cells for light perception
,3) sense flight speed and/or direction-if the eyes are shaved, foragers have difficulty
orienting as they fly near their nest
1) To which species do honeybees belong?
2) What are the three races/subspecies of apis mellifera? Elaborate on race/subspecies
of A.m.*
1) mellifera
2) ligustica, scutellata, and capensis
-these three races all belong to the same species (they can interbreed and produce
viable offspring)
-a race has unique identifying traits (morphological and behavioural) that we recognize
by a third (subspecies) name
1) What do hairs on the honeybee's eyes do?
2) Do all bees make their nests entirely out of beeswax?
3) How is beeswax formed?
4) Why does wax turn yellow?*
1) sense wind speed to help them orient in the environment
2) No, just honeybees; other bees mix in dung and plant material
3) when a bee is full of nectar or honey, it triggers them to change some of that sugar
into wax
-wax glands on underside of abdomen (pure white, almost transparent)
4) because bees track fine material around on the combs causing a chemical change in
colour from white/transparent to yellow
Wasps vs bees?*
-wasps have non-hairy bodies, folded wings, narrow 'wasp-waist'
-bees are hairy, have open wings
1) What is a caste?
2) What are the morphological castes?
1) a functionally distinct group within a society
-in honeybees, they are both morphological and behavioural castes
2) workers (2000-80,000), queens (usually 1, rarely 2), and drones (0-2000+)
1) Describe the queen
2) Describe workers
3) Describe drones*
1) -female (sex)
-primary egg layer
-maintains colony cohesion with pheromones (chemicals emitted outside the body that
enable communication between individuals of the same species)
2) -female (sex)
-performs all 'work' in the colony: brood care, nest defence, foraging, wax secretion,
comb-building, feeding the queen and drones, making nectar into honey, etc
3) -male (sex)
, -one function: to mate with a queen (in flight)
-drones die during the act of mating
-get fed by workers
-produced seasonally
1) Since the honeybee nest is dark inside, how do they orient themselves?
2) How do the bees know which of them is the queen?*
1) by touch, vibration, smell, etc
2) she produces a 'queen substance' that she's there and functioning properly-doesn't
take too long for the bees to realize she is gone as pheromones disappear gradually
every 25min or so
What are cells the 3 castes are reared in?*
-worker cells: horizontal; hexagonal; 5.3-5.5mm wide (in European races)
-drone cells: horizontal; hexagonal; 6.2-6.8mm wide (much larger than worker cells)
-queen cell: downward-facing; round; start as a rounded cup that becomes elongated to
resemble a peanut
What happens after larvae is reared?*
-they are sealed in with wax, and the larvae spins a cocoon and pupates (cap brood)
-chew off cap and emerge as an adult
1) Honeybees live in a colony. What makes up a colony?
2) What is meant by brood?
3) What is pollen?
1) -nest: wax combs, food (pollen, nectar, honey), and brood
-bees: queen, workers, drones
2) eggs, larvae, and pupae (sealed or capped brood)
3) male germ cells of plants; provides proteins and lipids and vitamins and minerals
1) What is nectar?
2) What is honey?
3) What is the comb?
1) sugary solution derived from plants (usually from flowers)
2) concentrated and chemically altered nectar; mostly sugars but some enzymes and
small amounts of pollen, minerals, etc
3) the structure of interconnecting hexagonal cells constructed entirely of beeswax
What is a hive? Examples?
-a structure made by humans for bees to inhabit
-hives can be made of wooden boards, holly logs, clay pots, grass, mud, etc
-people often incorrectly refer to 'colonies' as 'hives'
Example: 'Mike Parker manages 6000 hives.' (should say occupied hives)
Example: 'There's a bee hive in the tupelo tree down yonder." (should be nest, not hive)