The physiology of the honey bees
Palpation and sense of smell
With the eyes the bee in the light of the external
world gets along. It lives however most time in the darkness of
the stick. There you are useful the eyes hardly somewhat, except
that her it sees where the flugloch the way in the light offers.
Everything else must create the antennas. By "smelling
keys" it will have to differentiate eggs, youngest, older and
cover-ripe larvae, pollen, unreifen and matures honey, wax and cement
resin, worker -, drone and queen cells, the distances between
honeycombs and booty, zugige places, which must to be sealed have, wax
moths and other enemies, waste, be out-created and who knows which
otherwise still everything. For the whole "interior life" of the
stick the antennas are the essential tool.
Fig. above on the left of head, above on the right of
antenna basis, at the bottom left hand corner and on the right of
antenna in different enlargement ( © R.F. Foelix)
In addition, for the field service in particular
the smell plays a large role. Already when leaving the stick the
bee carries forward the memory of a certain homeland smell. Each
bee colony has its special stick smell. It is compound for the age of the queen from many
smells by wood of different origin and different age, of the Propolis
(cement resin), used of juengern and older honeycombs, the polling and
honey supplies, from kind and quantity. The bee actually carries
this stick smell and by it by a strange flugloch as an intruder is
recognized. It carries it also in its memory and recognizes with
the return their homeland to this smell again.
Outside in Weltder blooms is the ability of the bee to recognize
smells for their collecting activity of large importance. It
possesses therefore also for bloom smells and biologically important
Grueche a particularly fine "feeler nose". It is less primarily
the smell and the color, which leads it from bloom to bloom of the
same plant type. That it can
be bloom constant, i.e., not dandelion on
osterglocken, of Arabis on Weichselblueten flies, it by their sense of
smell is facilitated. If it leads the eye from the distance,
then the smell in the proximity works. The bee can "smell" also
water and it is able, CO² (Kohlendioxid)wahrzunehmen, which for their
stay in the closed building of importance is.
There bloom smell and stick smell are, without the bee
(intentional) does somewhat in addition. But the bee knows also
consciously a smell, which Sterzelduft
from their smell gland produce. Chemically it
concerns a mixture out of several geruchsstoffen, like geraniol, Farnesol, CIT ral, Nerol, Geronsaeure,
Nerolsaeure. In the proximity of the
Sterzlerinnen one can notice a melissenartiges flavour clearly.
The bees use the smell for attracting of kind comrades.
That is e.g. important, if they found a rich Trachtquelle.
It sterzeln other fodder place just like on the flight there.
One can imagine that the smell routes collecting tank inside
proper with active traffic to good food places train. The
Sterzelduft might help to hold together by the swarm in air and the
bees to the place call, where the queen established itself. Even
if with Vorspieldie young bees go on a trip for the first time, soon
the flight board is covered with a large number of LOCK bees, which
show also out-inverted smell gland sterzelnd its kind comrade the way
to the native flugloch. The same happens, if a young queen went
on a trip to the Begattung and one back-expects.
The smell of the smell gland is not different however from
people to people like the stick smell. Thus collecting tank
inside also the stick stranger bees lure to the fodder place and on
the conditions can intensive Sterzeln of the bees on the flight board
also stick stranger young bees or even a gone on a trip young queen
attract. The strange young bees find admission behaviourless on
this occasion. But the queen usually costs it the life.
Other odoriferous substances play a role during the stick
defense. Thus the guards at the stick entrance call other nest
comrades when substantial threat by foreign intruders on the plan, by
spreading their Vorderkieferdruesen and fluegelschwirrend up strain
the abdomen with opened prick chamber ("Giftsterzeln"). Dismiss it from the Mandibeldruese a deterrence and an alarm substance with sharp smell, which one identified
as Heptanon-2 and from the glands in to prick gutter and
scheidenbereich a Alarmstoffm from which one already approximately a dozen of components isolated. Isopentylacetat is
completely predominantly represented, then oh follows with distance 1-Octanol, 2-Methylbutanol and other components. One can notice a banana-like smell in the proximity
of the alarmed bees. The with or against each other these alarm materials signals to the bees depending upon given situation:
"have eight!", "attack!" or "escape!". The bee
poison has obviously no alarm effect.
Further smells the one role play, are e.g. those during the partner identification, during the wedding flight, as well as the queen smell with swarms, than stabilizing factor.