Which bee stings male or female

I had no idea that not all bees die after stinging or even that some bees are stingless altogether! Nor did I know that only female bees have stingers. Great post, very informative! Great article Maddy. Catchy heading, nice photos and easy to read.

Glad to hear native bees are stingless. Was clear and informative! Great post! Scientific Scribbles Bee-Careful! Is this true, do bees really die after they sting you? Credit: fliqr ann , native bee So which species do actually die after they sting you? Credit: wikicommons supermanu , stinger apparatus So which species do not die after they sting you? Credit: fliqr Kees Smans , honeybee. September 4, Categories Class of Posted by madelinek. In these solitary hunting wasps, the females use their stings for two things: defense against predators and host modification.

Crabronid wasps, like the Cicada Killer we discussed last week, also have dual-purpose venom. Their sting is very painful to predators, but it also helps them capture food for their larvae by paralyzing their hosts. Crabronid wasps and bees are very closely related. In the workers of social species the ovaries are usually nonfunctional, and the venom gland is what gets the most use. Outside of the queens, honeybees and social wasps pretty much only use their stingers for defense.

The machinery which was the most convenient for them to use was one which already existed. The egg laying device which once allowed them to control their hosts became a device which allowed them to defend themselves. So the evolution of the stinger and venom go hand-in-hand when it comes to defense. Penis of a male honeybee. Bee penises are pretty fragile, and the penis of the male honeybee explodes with a really loud pop during the mating process.

This single ejaculation kills the bee. Other than that, most male wasps are actually pretty helpless. If you can identify Polistes males, which are out at this time of year, you can handle them all you want without ever getting hurt.

Picture credit: Anonymous used with permission. A lot of male wasps are helpless, but not all of them. Some do have pointy spikes on their butts, just above their penises.

These spikes allow them to poke attackers, and surprise them with a pinprick. The defining character of male Scoliid wasps, for example, is a trident which he wears on his butt to stab his enemies. Picture of a male Scoliid wasp, with the pseudostinger highlighted in red. Picture credit: Jeff Hollenbeck, via Bugguide. Male Thynnid wasps have a rather intimidating pseudostinger which sticks out from below the penis.

Wasps have an incredibly interesting evolutionary history. The female wasps evolved an ovipositor which was used to lay eggs into plants. These parasitoids found an entirely new use for this machinery in host modification. In groups which shifted out of the parasitoid lifestyle, the ovipositor became more useful for defending the nest. Male wasps are usually pretty defenseless, and most rely a lot on their resemblance to the dangerous females for protection.

A handful have taken a couple pointers from the female wasp playbook and developed their own pointy defense mechanisms. Thank you so much for these comments. Although, many people fiercely avoid a bee sting, under the belief that the bee will die after they sting you.

The importance of bees in the ecosystem has recently been stressed in mainstream media, as their demise would cause the extinction of our crops, which we heavily depend on to feed the population. However, the idea that all bees die after stinging is not entirely true.

Honey bees only sting when they feel threatened and their hive is under attack. Similar to why we have a lock on our front door and put in place security systems, bees have evolved to have security measures of their own to protect their honey and the queen.

When honey bees feel under attack, they release pheromones to alert other bees in the hive so multiple bees will attempt to sting. Not all species of bees can actually sting you. First off, male bees in any species cannot sting as only females have the bodily anatomy to do so. A honey bees stinger is made up of two barbed lancets, meaning when they sting, the stinger cannot be pulled out again.