HYMENOPTERA

Divided into two suborders:

1. Symphyta
- mainly sawflies and horntails
2. Apocrita
- wasps, ants, bees, and most parasitic forms

Apocrita
- "membrane-winged" insects
- social insects
- has social systems in which members are divided into
worker, drone, and queen castes

HONEY BEES

The Queen is sexually immature in the first 3 or 4 days. From day 5 she
can be fecundated by the drones (up to 40, but usually around 8 or 12).
After a few days of rest, she will start laying eggs for the rest of her life.
She will be productive for the first 2 years, but can live up to 5 years,
and there have been reports of queen living even for 8 years.

Drone
- male
- function is to fertilize a young queen bee
- the sense organs of the colony
- larger, plumper, stingless, with significantly larger eyes
and antennae than workers or queens
- gestation of a drone is 24 days from egg to emergence
In the first day as an insect, the working bee has an incomplete
Queen physiological development. It needs to consume much pollen for next 6
- responsible for reproduction to 8 days, for the skin to be fully pigmented, hypopharyngeal glands to
- the only reproductive female in the colony develop, the sting to be operational etc. When growth is complete, it
- the life force of the colony will not consume any more pollen, and the required nitrogen will be
covered by the small amounts of protein and free amino acids present
- largest bee in a colony in honey.
- life span is typically 2-3 years; a good husbandry and
forage can make a queen productive for 4-5 years
- long slender abdomen that tapers to a more defined
point
- usually is of one color with no bands
- has no pollen baskets on her legs and lacks wax glands
because she will never have to perform these tasks
- has ironically the shortest development of the bees with
emergence from cocoon at 16 days

Workers
- most numerous
- all are female
- normally incapable of reproduction
After mating, the drone dies, because he has a barbed sex organ which
- perform all necessary tasks, except reproduction remains inside the queen and at leaving it tears off the drone’s
- smallest bees in the colony abdomen. They can live between 32 to 58 days. If there is no mating
- have a 21-day development period from egg to flight and winter is coming, the drones will be expelled from the hive by
emergence the workers in autumn, as there is no use for them in the winter.
- have the shortest life span: 4-5 weeks in the summer
Impacts on bees
1. Pesticides
- when applied to crops, can reach bees through the air,
water, and soil

2. Air pollutants
- air pollutants interact with scent molecules sent out by
plants which bees need to locate food. This means it
takes bees longer to forage and become less effective at WASPS
pollination - with more than 100,000 species

3. Neonicotinoids Two main categories

- can impact the reproductive success of wild pollinators
such as bees
4. Insecticides
- have been shown to have a broad range of lethal
effects on pollinators, such as bees, under controlled
experimental conditions
- neurotoxic pesticides negatively affect bees' ability to
recognize their nests
- can affect the navigation pattern as well as learning and
feeding behavior of bees
1. Social wasps
- build nests and live in colonies of up to thousand of
individuals
ex. hornets and yellowjackets
2. Solitary wasps
- don't live in large nests with other wasps but live alone
- some build small nests in the ground or in natural
crevices while others get their nests from other insects

ex. parasitoid wasps lay their eggs in the bodies of "host"

insects while cleptoparasitic wasps steal their nests to
use as their own

Factors contributing to Colony Collapse Disorder

(CCD)
 Insecticide exposure
 Antibiotics
 GMO
- may have the potential for sub-lethal effects on
bess, thus disrupting their feeding behavior
 Habitat deterioration
- human activities led to degradation, fragmentation,
and destruction of natural habitats
- changes in the landscape structure affected bees
and pollinated plants
- degradation of the natural environment of
pollinator caused a reduction in the amount of bee food
and changes in the bee population
 Air pollution
 Viruses
- can cause lethal diseases and lead to the death of
an entire colony
- can infect bees at various stages of development
and drastically shorten their lives
 Pathogenic bacteria and fungi
 Heavy metals
 Parasites (Varrpa sp.)
 Invasive species (Aethina tumida)
- a small beetle inhabiting hives which colonized
Australia and North America is a threat to Europe, as its
larvae destroy stored pollen and honey
 SOLITARY WASPS

- also called "hunting wasps"

- smooth and shiny body; few hairs
- body ranges from slender to stout
- vary in size from less than 1/2 inch long to 1-1/2 inches
long
- vary in color: black and yellow, black and orange,
iridescent black or purple

Biology of solitary wasps

- most solitary wasps nest in the ground

- some build nests made of mud and a few nest in
cavities, like hollow plant stems or cavities in wood
- there is one female wasp in each nest
- some species live gregariously, meaning there are
many nests in a small area
- they sting and paralyze their prey
- the females bring a number of prey back to its nest; the
larvae feed on the immobilized prey that has been
provided for them
- adult solitary wasps feed on nectar and are commonly
seen around flowers
- they prey on insects or spiders to feed to their young; a
particular wasp attacks a specific type of insect
- the adult females die by the end of the summer; the
larvae eventually pupate and emerge the following
summer. there is one generation each year
 ANTS

SOCIAL WASPS

- commonly called paper wasps, hornet, and

yellowjackets
- build communal nests by mixing wood fibers with saliva
to form a paper-like material that can be molded into
brood cells and other nest components
- workers usually cling to the underside of the comb as
they guard the nest, feed the larvae, and perform other
housekeeping chores
- they are all carnivores; their prey consists mostly of
caterpillars and flies
- chew up their victims' bodies into a paste that can be
fed to their larvae and, in return, the larvae produce a
nutritional syrup that is consumed by the adults

Brood comb
- cells where larvae are reared
- always constructed like an inverted umbrella with open
ends of the hexagonal cells facing downward

Caste structure of the wasp's social system

Reproductive caste
Drone - fertile adult male; develops from an
unfertilized egg

Worker caste
Unmated adult females - generally the daughters
of the queen
The leaf-cutter ant nests provide alternative transport
pathways to release soil CO2 — increasing total
emissions and decreasing soil CO2 concentrations. Air
vents act like chimneys and push out an average of
10,000 times — and up to 100,000 times — more carbon
dioxide than untouched soil, they discovered.
“The nests are a ventilation system, a pathway for CO2
to get out”