Like other insects, bees have an external skeleton consisting of a hard jointed shell, formed of a layer known as chitin. These layers have been created to be hard enough to form the external skeleton structure.112

Other substances in the skeleton are water, protein and fat.

The Respiratory System

The bee's respiratory system, known as the "tracheal system," begins with external respiratory openings, or namely spiracles, and is then divided up into branches in such a way as to reach every organ in the bee's body. The trachea arms widen to form air sacs that are large albeit few in number, and used to store air. The small branches and tubes emerging from the sacs extend as far as the tissues. Bees can accelerate the passage of air into their bodies by contracting these sacs, which speeds up the oxygenation of the tissues.113

The vascular system consists of breathing holes that allow air to enter and leave the worker’s body and main trachea and air sacs which carry the air into and out of the cells.

Muscular Structure

Each muscle in the bee's body consists of different numbers of muscle fibers, consisting of longitudinal cells. To fulfill its functions, every living cell requires energy. The mitochondria provide this for the cells. In order for bees to be able to move, their muscles need to have the property of contraction-a need met by structures known as myofibrils, found in large quantities in the fluid of the muscle fibers and which do indeed possess contractibility.

Myofibrils consist of proteins and contain strings of large, oval mitochondria. The cytoplasm of the muscle fibers fills with glycogen, that the bee uses as a store of energy.

The myofibrils in bees' fast-moving wings are 2.5 to 3 µm (micrometer) across.114 These minute structures allow the honeybee to beat its wings 250 times a second.115 When laden with pollen, a bee can fly at 9 kilometers (5.6 miles) an hour, and 13 kilometers (8 miles) per hour when not laden.

The structure of the muscles allowing the bee to move changes according to their area of use. For example, those muscles like the wing muscles that must move very quickly lack the external membrane of the other muscles, in order to admit the requisite oxygen. In addition, the bee's entire body is equipped with tracheal tubes to carry the oxygen that its body needs.116

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• 112. The Guinness Encyclopedia, p.18
• 113. Ibid., p.91
• 114. Ali Demirsoy, Yasamin Temel Kurallari, Omurgasizlar/Bocekler (The Basic Rules of Life, Invertebrates/Insects), Entomology Vol. II / Part II, p.99
• 115. Joan Embery, Collection of Amazing Animal Facts, Delacorte Press, New York, 1983, p.23
• 116. Ali Demirsoy, Yasamin Temel Kurallari, Omurgasizlar/Bocekler (The Basic Rules of Life, Invertebrates/Insects), Entomology Vol. II / Part II, p.88

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