High-speed video reveals honey bee stingers are double-piston venom pumps
High-speed video reveals how honey bee stingers pump venom
Researchers at Macquarie University filmed detached honey bee stingers pumping venom into artificial gel, capturing the motion frame by frame with stereomicroscopy and high-speed color videography. The footage shows valves on each lancet inflating like parachutes on the downstroke to seal the chamber and push venom out, then deflating on the upstroke. Because the two valves pump in opposite directions, the stinger delivers a continuous flow, a mechanism confirmed by micro-CT scans and a 3D-printed prototype.
The unique geometry of the valves is the key; they act as collapsible pistons and—by pumping in opposite directions—they're able to deliver a continuous flow of venom.
- yieldcrv
> Honey bees are known to leave their stingers embedded in tender flesh once they sting you and fly away
This is an accident of our physiology as honey bees sting other species multiple times, just like a wasp can to us. They don’t except to rip in half or end their life when they sting us. This is not an adaptation specifically ensuring group survival, it is a tragedy exclusive to encountering mammals near the hive.
- hmartin
Beautiful.