page_title: Stinger
section_title: Arthropods
hierarchical_section_title: Stinger / Arthropods
caption_attribution_description: English: Closeup (macrograph) of the barb of an Arizona Bark Scorpion.
context_page_description: The term "stinger" is incorrectly used when referring to the piercing organ of venomous arthropods, the correct term is sting
  A sting is a sharp organ found in various animals capable of injecting venom, usually by piercing the epidermis of another animal.
  An insect sting can introduce venom into the wound, but not all stings are venomous. Bites, can introduce saliva as well as additional pathogens and diseases, and can be confused with stings. Specific components of venom are believed to give rise to an allergic reaction, which in turn produces skin lesions that may vary from a small itching wheal, or slightly elevated area of the skin, to large areas of inflamed skin covered by vesicles and crusted lesions.
  Stinging insects produce a painful swelling of the skin, the severity of the lesion varying according to the location of the sting, the identity of the insect and the sensitivity of the subject.
context_section_description: Among arthropods, a sting is a sharp organ, often connected with a venom gland and adapted to inflict a wound by piercing, as with the caudal sting of a scorpion. Stings are usually located at the rear of the animal. Animals with stings include bees, wasps (including hornets) and scorpions, as well as a single beetle species (Onychocerus albitarsis) that can deliver a poisonous sting from its antennae, whose terminal segments have evolved to resemble a scorpion's tail.
  In all stinging Hymenoptera the sting is a modified ovipositor. Unlike most other stings, honey bee workers' stings are strongly barbed and lodge in the flesh of mammals upon use, tearing free from the honey bee's body, killing the bee within minutes. The sting has its own ganglion, and it continues to saw into the target's flesh and release venom for several minutes. This trait is of obvious disadvantage to the individual but protects the hive from attacks by large animals.  
  The sting of nearly all other bees and other sting-bearing organisms is not barbed and can be used to sting repeatedly.  The description of barbed or unbarbed is not precise: there are barbs on the stings of yellowjacket wasps and the Mexican honey wasp, but the barbs are so small that the wasp can sometimes withdraw its sting apparatus from the wound site.
  The stings of some wasps, such as those of the Polistes versicolor, contain relatively large amounts of 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) in its venoms. The 5-HT in these venoms has been found to play at least two roles: one as a pain-producing agent and the other in the distribution and penetration of the paralyzing components to vulnerable sites in the offender. This helps in the rapid immobilization of the animal or of the body parts receiving the venom.
  Spiders only bite, although some tarantulas have urticating hairs.  Certain caterpillars also have urticating hairs.
caption: Scorpion sting
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