The lifestyle of bees can be divided into three types: gregarious, solitary and parasitic.
Socialization:
Male and female worker ants live in the same nest, but there are differences in morphology, physiology and division of labor. Female individuals are large and good at spawning and reproduction; Males are smaller than females, specialize in mating and die after mating; Worker bees are small female bees with genital hypoplasia. They specialize in nesting, collecting food, feeding larvae, cleaning the nest room and adjusting the humidity of the nest. Italian bees and China bees are social species. Besides, there are bumblebees, tropical stingless bees and wheat bees.
Uniqueness:
The vast majority of bees live alone, that is, female bees nest alone to collect powder and store grain, and they have no "hierarchical" differentiation. Each nest room is open, the inner wall is coated with wax and other moisture-proof substances, and enough bee bread is stored in the room. Female bees lay eggs on the bee bread and close their nests. Larvae feed on bee bread in the nest. Most species belonging to this category are wild species, such as Aphidae, Aphidae, Formicidae, Tenebrionidae, Aphidae and Formicidae.
There are some complex transitional types between sociality and loneliness, and the genus tunneling bee is the most prominent in this respect. However, there are some differences between different species. For example, the border tunnel bees are gregarious, with social division of labor among individuals and slightly different shapes (internal anatomy). Tunnel bees are nests where several females live together, but there is no difference in external morphology and internal anatomy. Soft tunnel bees germinate socially: the overwintering female bees stay in the nest, and when the next generation of smaller female bees (also called helper bees) appear in mid-June, they build a new nest with the helper bees to reserve bee bread. But the helper bees don't mate and only give birth to unfertilized eggs that develop into males. In August, male and female offspring as big as female bees appeared, and the original female bees and helper bees died one after another. The male bees died the same year after mating, and the fertilized female bees overwintered again. The difference between this kind of bees and typical social bees is that the female bees have prepared bee bread before laying eggs.
Parasitic:
Female bees do not build nests, but lay eggs in parasitic nests. Larvae generally has a large head and upper jaw, which is used to destroy the eggs or larvae of the host.
The nesting instinct of bees is complex, and the nesting place, time and nest structure are diverse. The nesting time is usually in the flowering period of plants. According to the nesting site and nest texture, it can be divided into the following categories: ① Species engaged in social life take wax secreted by themselves as spleen, such as bees, stingless bees, wheat bees and so on. The nest room is hexagonal. ② There are the most kinds of nests in the soil, and the interior of the nest room is coated with a mixture of wax and saliva to keep the humidity of the nest room. (3) The ways of using plant tissues to build nests are more diverse. For example, LEPIDOPTERA can roll plant leaves into tubes to form nests and put them in natural cavities; Mylabris uses plant hair to make wart nests on the stems; Lupine and LEPIDOPTERA insects nest on the stems of dead plants; Some kinds of bumblebees nest under the litter of the forest; Wood wasps drill holes in wood to build nests, and so on. (4) Others, for example, the genus Myzus uses saliva to adhere to small sandstone to build nests, and the genus Myzus builds nests in the shell of slugs.
Beehives are generally scattered, but there are also similar bees that have been concentrated in one place for many years, thus forming a nest group. For example, the number of nests of hairy feet can reach dozens or even hundreds.
Composition and division of labor of bee colony
Bees belong to the genus Apis, Hymenoptera, Lepidoptera, and Apidoidea. Bees are raised by human beings and can produce honey, beeswax and so on. Pollen plants. Bees are social insects and live in groups. Bee colony is a biological unit on which bees live. Although a single bee is also an independent organism, it can't survive without the colony. Bee colony has developed to the advanced stage of social insects. A swarm of bees usually consists of a queen bee, a large number of worker bees and a small number of drones. They have different forms and functions, cooperate with each other and depend on each other, just like a big family or even a country in human society. This paper introduces the relationship between queen bee, worker bee, drone and bee colony.
1, queen bee
The queen bee is the only female bee with fully developed reproductive organs. Developed from fertilized eggs of Wangtai. The queen bee's body is longer than that of worker bees (Italian bees) 1/4 (Chinese bees) to 1 times. The abdomen is long and conical, accounting for about 3/4 of the body length, and the wings are short, covering only half of the abdomen. Unlike worker bees, this kind of sting is only slightly barbed, and it is only used when fighting with the competing queen bee. Although the action seems to be slow and unhurried, it is very agile when necessary. The oviposition queen of Chinese bee (APIs cerana) is about 250 mg in length18 ~ 22 mm. The newborn queen bee of Italian bee (Italian bee) weighs 170 ~ 240mg, and the spawning queen bee is 20 ~ 25mm long and weighs 250 ~ 300mg. The function of the queen bee is to lay eggs. An excellent queen bee can lay about 1500 eggs every day and night during the spawning period. The quality and spawning ability of queen bees play a decisive role in the strength and genetic traits of bee colonies. Only by cultivating excellent and robust queen bees in production can the bee colony maintain strong colony potential and high production performance.
Generally, there is only one queen bee in a colony. If there is a blocked queen platform in the colony, bees will be grouped (naturally). When there are two queens, they will fight with each other until there is one left. But in the natural alternation, the old queen bee may live in the same nest with the new queen bee for a period of time.
There must be no queen bee in the hive. Guardian bees know whether there is a queen bee in this group by transmitting the queen bee substance secreted by the queen bee in the hive. If the queen bee is not here, after a few minutes, the working order in the bee colony will be seriously affected and the worker bees will be anxious. At this time, as long as a queen bee is lured into the colony that has lost the queen bee, or a mature queen bee platform is added, the restless situation of the colony will soon change and resume normal activities.
The queen bee is specially cared for by worker bees all her life, especially during the spawning period. Usually, there is always a guard bee surrounded by young worker bees. Guard worker bees keep touching the queen bee with their tentacles, licking it and removing its excrement. Worker bees feed the queen bee with royal jelly. Without worker bees, the queen bee's oviposition function cannot be realized. After the queen bee doesn't lay eggs, the worker bees don't care much. Sometimes, in order to force the queen bee to stop laying eggs (for example, when the bees are ready to group), the worker bees no longer feed the queen bee with royal jelly, and then the queen bee will go to the honey storage nest to get honey herself. The queen bee has lost the ability to keep bees (including eggs, larvae and pupae), so the worker bee has assumed the function of keeping bees.
Virgin queen bees usually don't lay eggs. If queens over the age of 20 have not mated, they will give birth to unfertilized eggs, so the overdue unmated virgin queens should be eliminated.
The life span of a successfully mated queen bee is 3-5 years, and the longest is 8-9 years. Usually, the ability of queen bees to lay eggs for more than 2 years will gradually decline. Queen bees that have been used for more than 2 years are no longer used in production, and queen bees that are aging, disabled and have decreased egg production are replaced at any time.
2. worker bees
Worker bees are female individuals developed from fertilized eggs in worker bees' houses, but their reproductive organs are not fully developed and their ovaries are small. Except that there is no queen bee in the colony, they generally don't lay eggs. Worker bees are the smallest members of the bee colony, but the number accounts for the vast majority of the bee colony. Worker bees of APIs cerana cerana weigh about 80 mg at birth and have a body length of10 ~13 mm. The worker bees of APIs mellifera weigh about 1 10mg at birth, have a body length of 12 ~ 14mm, a chest width of 4.4 mm, and weigh about 1kg per 10000 bees. Each worker bee crawls on the spleen of the nest, occupying the area of three nests, and there are about 2500 worker bees crawling on both sides of a standard nest frame. Worker bees are small and dark brown, with thick grayish yellow hair on their heads, chests and backs. The head is slightly triangular, with a pair of compound eyes, three monocular eyes, a pair of tentacles and bent knees; Developed mouthparts, suitable for chewing and sucking; There are three pairs of feet, and there are pollen collecting structures in femoral joint, tibial joint and tarsal joint. The abdomen is conical, the back is yellowish brown, there are black links at the node 1 ~ 4, and the end is sharp, with poisonous glands and barbed needles; There are four pairs of wax plates in the abdomen, which contain wax glands and secrete wax. They have all organs, including pollen baskets, smelly glands and so on. They perform all kinds of tasks needed for the development of the bee colony, so the worker bees are responsible for all the work inside and outside the whole bee colony. Its function changes with age. This phenomenon is called the phenomenon of different ages and different jobs. The main duty of worker bees under 3 days old is to clean the nest room for the queen bee to lay eggs; In the next two weeks, with the development of tongue gland (vegetative gland, royal jelly gland), wax gland, poisonous gland and other glands, they secrete royal jelly to feed the queen bee, and get royal jelly (queen bee substance, a pheromone) from the queen bee to feed the larvae, prepare larval pulp (royal jelly with honey and bee bread) to feed the big larvae, adjust the temperature and humidity in the nest, make the air in the box circulate, secrete beeswax and repair the nest. At the peak of bee colony reproduction, especially before bee distribution, worker bees also feed drones, with the change of position and the increase of age; They move from the center of the hive to the outside. About 3 weeks old worker bees began to work outside the nest, collecting nectar, pollen, water, propolis and so on. , or reconnaissance honey source. However, their functions can be changed according to the changes of environmental conditions and the needs of bee colonies, and they have great plasticity.
The life span of bees is 4 ~ 6 weeks in summer and 3 ~ 6 months in winter, which is closely related to the work intensity and population potential. In the production season, worker bees have the shortest life span. In winter and early spring, the worker bees that have wintered in the bee colony gradually die, but in late spring, when the number of new worker bees exceeds the number of old worker bees, the trend of bee colony begins to increase. In the breeding season, the number of worker bees in a strong bee colony can reach 50 thousand to 60 thousand.
Step 3 hum
Drones are developed from unfertilized eggs in the drone house, and they are male individuals of the bee colony. Its physique is stout, its head and tail are almost round, its compound eyes are big and prominent, its wings are wide and its feet are stout, so it can quickly find and catch up with the queen bee. The weight 1220 mg and body length 12 ~ 15 mm of Chinese bees, and the weight 15 ~ 17 mm of Italian bees, the variety and physique of drones, and the quantity and fluidity of their semen have an impact on the genetic characteristics of the offspring of the new bee colony.
Drones have no needles, poison sacs, pollen baskets and wax secretion organs, but they have short tongues, feed from the honey storage room in the nest, and have no work skills, so they mate with the queen bee full-time. Most UAVs start flying within 7 ~ 10 days, and sexual maturity is about 8 ~ 14 days. 12 ~ 20 days is the mating age. Uavs usually fly to mate at 1 ~ 5 o'clock on a sunny afternoon. After mating with the queen bee, they die quickly because their reproductive organs remain in the abdomen of the female bee.
Male bees eat a lot, and the larval stage is 1 ~ 2 times that of worker bees; Adult bees consume more feed and usually feed on honey spleen. During the breeding season, worker bees will be fed with nutritious feed such as pollen and bee bread.
Drones can live for several months, but most of them die young. There is a shortage of honey sources in autumn in the north. Before the arrival of summer in the south, worker bees will not let the drones eat the honey stored in the bees that have mated with the queen bee, and will be expelled from the nest by the worker bees. Because the drone can't eat or defend itself, it died of hunger and cold soon after leaving the group. Those who don't have a queen bee or a queen bee continue to tolerate drones and feed them in the season when nectar is gradually scarce. Whether the drone is expelled from the hive is a signal that the honey source and feed in the hive are sufficient. The first batch of drones in early spring are precious and can be temporarily kept to ensure the smooth mating of queen bees.
4. The relationship between bees
Although bees live in groups, there is no collusion between bees. In order to resist the invasion of exotic bees and other insects and animals, bees have formed the ability to guard their hives. Spines are their main self-defense organs.
Bees in the hive can recognize other bees through their sensitive sense of smell. Bees guarding the nest door are not allowed to enter the nest. If other bees steal honey from the nest, the guard bees will fight immediately until the newcomers are expelled or die. Outside the hive, such as in flowers or drinking places, different bees are not hostile and interfere with each other.
The queen bee who flies out of mating will be immediately surrounded by worker bees and assassinated if she strays into another group. Worker bees will not harm drones that fall into the wrong group. This may be the biological characteristics of bee colony to avoid inbreeding for better survival of race.
swallow
Living habits of various swallows
Jin yaoyan
The shape and size of the golden waist swallow are almost the same as those of the domestic swallow. The most striking sign is that it has a chestnut yellow belt, which is bright and eye-catching, so it is also called red waist swallow. The upper body is blue and black with metallic luster; There is a broad chestnut yellow horizontal belt at the waist; The tail is dark brown, with long lateral tail feathers and a deep fork-shaped tail. The wings are covered with feathers similar to tail feathers, and the flying feathers are brown. The lower body is white and brown with dark brown stripes. Inhabits near mountain villages and urban buildings from the plain to an altitude of about 1500 meters. Insects flying in the air look for food. Distributed in vast areas except Xinjiang and northern Tibet (summer migratory birds); Taiwan Province province (resident bird). It can be seen everywhere during the migration process.
The life habit of Jinyaoyan is similar to that of domestic swallow, but it often stops in the mountainous area with higher altitude. Sometimes I fly with the swallow, but not as fast as the swallow. Often grounded at high altitude, singing a little louder than the domestic swallow. Golden-waisted swallows don't nest in the house like domestic swallows. They often nest on the outer walls of houses between mountain villages and like to choose wooden houses. The nests are mostly flask-shaped and exquisite, and have been called Qiaoyan by China people since ancient times. Golden-waisted swallows live in groups, and even six pairs of golden-waisted swallows pile their nests together like honeycombs, which is a rare spectacle.
swallow
Domestic swallows belong to ornithopteridae, which are widely distributed all over the world except the polar regions. * * * There are about 78 species belonging to 17, and there are 4 genera 10 in China. But the most common and familiar ones are domestic swallows and golden waist swallows.
Swallow length 17cm, weight 15g to 18g. Its upper body is blue and black, its forehead and throat are brown, its chest is black and brown, the rest of its lower body is white, and there are a row of white spots at the base of its tail. It has agile posture, long and narrow wings, flies like a sickle, and its tail splits like scissors. Fly as fast as an arrow, go up and down, run around, and make a 90-degree turn in a distance shorter than its length. These flexible operation skills enable them to get out of trouble when they are engaged in thrilling journeys in the future. Swallows often fly around in the air at an extremely fast speed, and the wind and rain have little influence on them. They are very alert. They can catch all kinds of flying insects in the air with their mouths open and make a few short and sharp calls from time to time. Mosquitoes and flies, as well as COLEOPTERA, LEPIDOPTERA and HYMENOPTERA, are their favorite prey.
Crown Swift and White Waist Swift
Swift, also known as Beijing Swift, Louyan and Maya, belongs to Swift, Louyan and Swift Order. According to the data, there is only one subspecies of Swift in China, mainly distributed in Xinjiang, Qinghai, Inner Mongolia, North China, Northeast China and other places, nesting in the rafters and wall caves of ancient wooden brick buildings such as ancient temples and temples. 1From early April to August, 1996, the biology team observed the morphology and nesting habits of swift on campus.
I. Morphological characteristics
Swift looks like a domestic swallow, but it is bigger. Swift is almost dark brown, with thick colors on the top, back and abdomen, light colors on the forehead and neck, white feathers on the throat and flange, brown eyes, short and wide mouth, and black and deep purple feet and toes. Swift's wings are long and narrow, folded at the tail end. When gliding in the air, its wings are flat and its wingspan is like a sickle. When flying, the tail is scissors-shaped. Swift flight is very characteristic, flapping its wings and gliding alternately, flying faster, like diving and galloping. When gliding, the tail keeps moving to adjust the whole flight attitude. Its hind legs are short, its four toes are forward, and it is a front toe type. This toe type is not good at grasping thin objects, so Swifts can't rest on branches and wires like domestic swallows and sparrows, but they can rest on walls or tree trunks by grasping with their claws. Swifts like to fly in groups, but some lonely swallows fly alone to find food. They often fly over ancient buildings in groups in the morning or evening, and rest in their nests when the weather is hot at noon.
The morphological characteristics of swift are related to its feeding habits. Swifts are mainly flying insects and have good eyesight. In flight, its posture can be changed naturally and easily. For example, in the process of returning to its nest, it will suddenly be frightened and fly away with an unimaginable flight action. Its flying speed is unmatched by other birds, and it can make almost right-angle turns when flying fast, which not only benefits from its unparalleled streamlined shape. Whether they fly in groups is related to whether they are more conducive to predation, because the success rate of single predation is far lower than that of group predation. Single predation is a one-dimensional straight line, and insects can easily escape, while group flight is often a three-dimensional predation, and it is difficult for flying insects to escape this predation mode.
/kloc-the morphological measurement data of 0/6 adult swifts are as follows: (All data are average)
Weight: 43g length: 175mm.
Wing length:170mm Span length: 417mm
Mouth peak length: 6.5 mm toe length: 6.6 mm.
Mouth crack length: 18mm claw length: 6.5mm
Tail length: 74 mm
Swift is a summer migratory bird that migrates to North China in mid-April every spring. Baoding city is generally 15, with a difference of no more than two days. At this time, around Grain Rain, the ground temperature began to rise continuously, bloom was warm in spring, insects came back, and Swift had more food. The temperature is neither too high nor too low, and the average temperature is around 15 degrees, which is a good season for swift breeding. At the beginning of May, swift began to mate, and we will make a further detailed observation on the reproduction of swift. At the end of July, when Swift was mature enough to fly alone for food, the family moved south and will revisit their hometown until next spring.
Second, nesting habits
Swifts migrate to Baoding around April 15 every year, some stay and more continue to go north. The remaining swift immediately chose a place to nest. They often camped on the rafters of ancient buildings, and some on the platform between the beams and the capitals. The bird's nest is generally more than 4 meters above the ground and hidden, which is conducive to the entry and exit of swallows.
The main nest of the Swift in Baoding No.2 Middle School is under the eaves of the gables in front of and behind the main hall. There are obviously more nests in the front eaves than in the back eaves. There are 23 nests in the front eaves, 6 nests in the back eaves, and one or two nests under the eaves of the east and west wings. The nest is a shallow dish-shaped oval, made of dead leaves, weeds, cloth strips, shredded paper, plastic film, feathers and so on. And it is more durable. Bright and transparent saliva traces can be seen on the surface of the nest, and the base of the whole nest is mostly wood. The material and wood of the bird's nest base are bonded together by Swift's saliva, which becomes very strong and will not deteriorate after years of use. This may be the reason why Swift chose a house with wooden brick structure to build its nest. The inner layer of the nest is covered with soft feathers, cotton wool, hair, plastic film and so on. The measurement results of 8 nests are as follows: (average)
Average outside diameter:13cm * 8.5cm.
Average inner diameter:10cm * 6.5cm.
Height: 2cm-4cm
Swift has the habit of following his lair. Generally, young birds build more nests, and sometimes two swift can compete for a nest. Whether swift can accurately identify its nest will be further studied. The distance between nests depends on the living environment, some are big and some are small. The Bird's Nest in No.2 Middle School Auditorium has the above characteristics. The farthest nest is about 7 meters, and the nearest two nests are adjacent, separated by only a rafter. In the sunny front eaves, the density of nests is higher, while in the shady back eaves, the number of nests is less and the interval is larger.
In order to protect Swift, according to Swift's habit of extending the nest and the size of the nest, a dozen shallow dish-shaped nests were woven with weeds and placed in the rafters, with an average distance between two rafters. It turned out that part of the bird's nest was nailed up with wooden boards. After some experiments, Swift doesn't care about such "advanced" housing. Through the cause analysis, Swift's habitat is mostly under the eaves, which has been able to achieve ventilation, shelter from rain and shade, and its nest position is relatively hidden and safe. In order to meet the harsh nesting conditions of swift and protect their colony, we chose the nesting method of "changing the new into the old", which on the one hand helped swift save some energy and on the other hand was more conducive to studying the reproductive activities of swift.