Month: December 2023

K is for Killer Bees

Today’s letter K is for Killer Bees. This is a term most beekeepers do not like or appreciate. Bees in general are not killers, and in fact most individual stings to non-beekeepers are from wasps, not bees. Since honey bees die after they sting, they tend not to do so away from their home hive.

In any case, the so-called killer bees are not African bees either. What the press calls killer bees are actually Africanized bees, a cross between western (European) honey bees and the East Africa lowland honey bee, the Apis mellifera scutellata. Western honey bees did not do well in Brazil, so the government funded a project to see if a cross-breed could fare a bit better.

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J is for Johnston’s Organ

Today’s letter J is for Johnston’s Organ, the primary audio sensor in honey bees. Who is this guy Johnston and why does he have an organ? Well, I will tell you.

Christopher Johnston reported his discovery in 1855 in the paper Auditory Apparatus of the Culex Mosquito. Johnston was a physician, and had a son named Christopher Johnston as well. Why the son gets a Wikipedia article and the father does not, I have no idea.

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I is for iberiensis

This week’s letter I is for iberiensis. The subspecies Apis mellifera iberiensis, also referred to as the Spanish honey bee, is native to the Iberian peninsula forming parts of Spain, Portugal, and Gibraltar. A subspecies forms when a specific species adapts to an area and takes on distinctive traits that distinguish it from other subspecies. While different species are unable to reproduce, such as a dog and a cat, two subspecies of the same species can still reproduce. A subspecies is still a formal taxonomic designation, not to be confused a less formal designation like a breed or race.

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H is for Heart

Today’s letter H is for Heart. Do bees even have a heart? You may be surprised to learn that they sorta do, and sorta don’t. Like all insects, bees do not have a central circulatory system with a single heart pumping blood throughout the body. Instead, like most insects (really, most anthropods), bees have an open circulatory system that moves hemolymph throughout the body.

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