The Self-Sacrifice of Worker Bees
In the period during which they serve as guards, these worker bees place their own lives in danger. That is because any bee that attacks an aggressor faces death because it is unable to retract its sting. Like the spines of a hedgehog, the bee's stinger is barbed that prevent it from being withdrawn from the skin of many animals. The guard bees can retract their stings only from other bees or certain other animals-and the guards suffer no harm in such cases. However, if a bee stings a human being and then seeks to fly away, the sting mechanism remains embedded in skin, and the bee is thus eviscerated. The area of the abdomen which is thus detached contains the venom sac and the nerves that control it. In the wake of this damage to its internal organs, the bee soon dies.
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| When a bee stings you, the barb on its stinger pierces your skin. In the process, the entire sting mechanism is torn out, leaving the bee mortally wounded. Even after the dying bee has departed, a set of muscles push the barb in deeper and continue to contract in such a way as to pump more venom into the wound. The small photograph shows a stinger detached from a bee’s body. | |
Another feature of the sac torn from the soon-to-be dead bee is that it still continues to pump venom out into its victim, even though it is no longer attached to the bee.27
The defense of the hive is a major responsibility that concerns the entire colony-one that the guard bees fulfill even at the cost of their own lives. Every bee in the hive behaves in the same way, and when the time comes, it assumes the role of sentry, protecting the colony at the risk of its own life.
This self-sacrificing behavior of bees refutes the evolutionists' claim that there is a "struggle for survival" in nature and that all living things seek to protect only their own line of descent.
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The drawing on the left shows the bee-sting mechanism, with such structures as the muscles and venom sac. |
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This article is based on the works of Harunyahya www.harunyahya.com