The common perception of a bee’s defense focuses entirely on the painful sting, but this is not the full story of bee aggression. While stinging is the most well-known defense mechanism, some groups of bees rely on a different tactic for protection. These bees, either lacking a functional stinger or facing a small threat, use their jaws to bite and chew instead of sting. This behavior is an adaptation that answers the question of what bees bite rather than sting.
The Primary Defense Mechanism: Stinging
The stinger apparatus is the primary defense for many social bees, notably the honey bee. It evolved from a reproductive organ found in female insects, specifically a modified ovipositor. Over time, this structure transformed into a weapon used for colony defense.
When a bee stings a large animal, the barbed lancets implant into the tissue and often tear free from the bee’s body, continuing to pump venom autonomously. This venom, or apitoxin, contains compounds that cause immediate pain and inflammation in the aggressor. The detachment of the stinger is a costly, often fatal, sacrifice for the worker bee, but it releases alarm pheromones that recruit other workers to the threat.
The True Function of Bee Mandibles
All bees possess a pair of mandibles, which are powerful, movable jaws that swing in and out. These mandibles are multi-purpose tools constantly used for non-aggressive tasks within the colony. For example, a newly emerged worker bee uses its mandibles to chew its way out of its wax cell.
Worker bees use their mandibles for several essential tasks:
- Manipulating and shaping wax scales into honeycomb cells.
- General sanitation, such as scraping debris from cell walls.
- Gathering sticky plant resins to create propolis, which seals and disinfects the hive interior.
- Dispensing brood food when nurse bees feed larvae.
When Bees Bite Defensively
For Stingless Bees (Meliponini), biting is the primary defense mechanism because their stingers are highly reduced and non-functional. These bees, found in tropical and subtropical regions, rely on sheer numbers and jaw strength to fend off intruders. When threatened, a colony will swarm an aggressor and aggressively bite any exposed skin or hair.
Specialized Stingless Bee Defenses
Some species, such as those in the genus Trigona, combine biting with chemical warfare. They may secrete caustic substances from their mandibular glands, including formic acid, which can cause painful blisters. Other defensive stingless bees will bite while simultaneously applying a sticky substance to immobilize small intruders, such as ants, near the nest entrance.
Honey Bee Defensive Biting
Even the common Honey Bee (Apis) uses its mandibles aggressively when stinging is impractical. Guard bees engage in chewing behavior to defend the hive against small insect pests like wax moth larvae or small hive beetles. This defensive chewing is also a trait in strains bred for hygienic behavior, where workers use their jaws to remove parasitic mites, like Varroa, from their nest mates.
The honey bee’s goal in these cases is not to deliver venom but to physically dismantle or remove the threat. Guard bees clamp down on an intruder, using their mandibles to tear at the pest’s limbs or exoskeleton before dragging the remains out of the hive. This targeted biting protects the colony from small threats without resorting to the potentially lethal act of stinging.