page_title: Worker bee
section_title: Stinger
hierarchical_section_title: Worker bee / Stinger
caption_attribution_description: English: The stinger of a black bee (Apis mellifera mellifera) torn from the bee's body and attached to a protective dressing. Français&#160;: Dard d'une abeille noire (Apis mellifera mellifera) ouvrière arraché de son abdomen suite à une piqûre et resté accroché à une tenue de protection.
context_page_description: A worker bee is any female bee that lacks the full reproductive capacity of the colony's queen bee; under most circumstances, this is correlated to an increase in certain non-reproductive activities relative to a queen, as well. Worker bees occur in many bumble bee Bombus species other than honey bees, but this is by far the most familiar colloquial use of the term.
  Workers gather pollen into the pollen baskets on their back legs and carry it back to the hive where it is used as food for the developing brood. Pollen carried on their bodies may be carried to another flower where a small portion can rub off onto the pistil, resulting in cross pollination. A significant amount of the world's food supply, particularly fruit, depends greatly on crop pollination by honey bees. Nectar is sucked up through the proboscis, mixed with enzymes in the stomach, and carried back to the hive, where it is stored in wax cells and evaporated into honey.
context_section_description: The worker bee's stinger is a complex organ that allows a bee to defend itself and the hive from most mammals. Attacking bees aim for the face by sensing regions with high levels of carbon dioxide (like mosquitos). Bee stings against mammals and birds typically leave the stinger embedded in the victim due to the structure of flesh and the stinger's barbs. In this case, the venom bulb stays with the stinger and continues to pump.  Upon losing its stinger, the bee will subsequently die since the portion where the stinger bulb was removed rips out part of its insides.
  The barbs on the stinger will not catch on most animals besides mammals and birds, which means that such animals can be stung many times by the same bee.
caption: The stinger of a black honeybee torn off its body and attached to a protecting dress
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