Domestic insects that people raise. Termites should not be confused with ants - these insects belong to completely different orders of insects. Insects with incomplete metamorphosis

Of all the known insects, humans have domesticated only the honey bee and the silkworm. When breeding bees, it was possible to have honey and wax, and when breeding silkworms, silk was possible.

Bee family

Honeybees live in large families: wild ones in tree hollows, domestic ones in hives. Each family has a female - the queen, several hundred males - drones (they live from the time they emerge from the pupae until autumn) and up to 70 thousand worker bees. The queen bee is the largest bee in the family. Starting in spring, she lays eggs (up to 2000 per day). Drones - bees average size with large eyes touching at the back of the head. They fertilize the uterus. Worker bees do all the work in the hive. They are smaller than the rest of the family.

Honey bees

Families of honey bees can be classified as clearly social colonies. In a family, each bee performs its own function. The functions of a bee are conditionally determined by its biological age. However, as has been established, in the absence of older bees, their functions can be performed by bees of younger ages.
It is necessary to distinguish between the actual and biological age of the bee, since during the honeybee the worker bee lives from 30 to 35 days, and during wintering the bee remains biologically young for up to 9 months (Central Russian gray bee in the conditions of northern Russia and Siberia). When indicating the life span and periods of development of bees, they usually focus on the life expectancy of the bee at the time of the honeybee.

Features of the structure and behavior of worker bees. On the underside of the worker bee's abdomen there are smooth areas called speculum. Wax is released onto their surface. Bees make hexagonal cells from it - honeycombs: large, medium and small. On the hind legs of bees there is one “basket” and one “brush”. With their help, they collect flower pollen. Having arrived at the hive, the bees place it in the cells of the honeycomb. Other worker bees compact the pollen and soak it in honey. Bee bread is formed - a supply of protein feed. The bees regurgitate the nectar collected from flowers into cells from the honey sac. Here it turns into honey - a supply of sugary food. “Milk” is produced in special glands of worker bees. They feed the queen and larvae with it. At the end of the abdomen of worker bees there is a retractable serrated sting associated with a poison gland and used for defense.

Worker bees also perform other work: ventilate the hive, clean it, seal the cracks, etc. Each of them goes through all types of activities during its life as it develops certain glands. Young worker bees (up to 10 days old) make up the queen’s retinue, feeding her and the larvae, since young bees secrete royal jelly well. From approximately 7 days of age, wax glands begin to work on the lower part of the bee's abdomen and wax begins to be secreted in the form of small plates. Such bees gradually switch to construction work in the nest. As a rule, in the spring there is a massive rebuilding of white honeycombs - this is due to the fact that by this period the overwintered bees en masse reach the biological age corresponding to the rebuilding bees.

Around 14-15 days, the productivity of the wax glands drops sharply and the bees switch to the following types of nest care activities - they clean the cells, clean up and remove garbage. From the age of about 20 days, bees switch to ventilating the nest and guarding the entrance. Bees older than 22-25 days are mainly engaged in honey collection. To inform other bees about the location of nectar, the foraging bee uses visual biocommunication. Bees over 30 days old switch from honey collection to collecting water for the needs of the family. This bee life cycle is designed for the most rational utilization of nutrients and the use of the available number of bees in the family. Largest quantity The bee's body contains excess nutrients when it leaves the cell. At the same time, most bees die when they take water from natural reservoirs. Much fewer of them die when collecting honey from flowers and when approaching the hive.

Bee development. The uterus lays fertilized eggs in large and small cells, and unfertilized eggs in medium cells. The worker bees feed the larvae hatched from the eggs with “milk”. Then only the larvae of large cells receive the “milk”, the rest receive pollen and honey. After the last molt of the larvae, the worker bees seal the cells with wax. Soon the larvae pupate, and then adult insects emerge from the pupae. They gnaw through the wax caps and crawl out to the surface of the honeycomb. Queens emerge from large cells, drones emerge from medium cells, and worker bees emerge from small cells.

Silkworm

The silkworm is a medium-sized white butterfly. Before pupation, its caterpillars weave cocoons from silk thread. Silkworm breeding began in China about 5 thousand years ago. In the process of domestication from generation to generation, butterflies were left for breeding, which laid many eggs and had underdeveloped wings, and their caterpillars wove large cocoons (their thread became up to 1000 m long or more).

The silkworm belongs to the insect class, a representative of the arthropod phylum. This silkworm may be an example of a domesticated insect. As a domestic insect, people have been breeding the silkworm for several millennia; it has lost the properties of its wild ancestors and can no longer live in natural conditions. He has developed a number of adaptations that greatly facilitate his breeding. For example, silkworm butterflies have essentially lost the ability to fly. Females are especially inactive. The caterpillars are also inactive and do not crawl away.

The silkworm, like other butterflies, develops with complete transformation. The silkworm butterfly has a wingspan of 40 to 60 mm. The color of its body and wings is dirty white with more or less distinct brownish bands. By appearance A female silkworm is quite easy to distinguish from a male. She has a more massive abdomen than the male, and her antennae are less developed. On the first day after leaving the cocoon (silk shell), the female insect lays eggs, the so-called grena. A clutch contains on average from 500 to 700 eggs. Egg laying lasts three days.

A caterpillar emerges from an egg. She grows quickly and sheds four times. Caterpillars develop within 26–32 days. The duration of their development depends on the breed, temperature, air humidity, quantity and quality of food, etc. The silkworm caterpillar feeds on mulberry leaves. At the end of development, the caterpillar strongly develops a pair of silk glands. They intensively secrete liquid, which quickly thickens in air, turning into a silk thread. From this thinnest thread, reaching 1000 m in length, the caterpillar spins a cocoon. In the cocoon, the caterpillar turns into a pupa. The cocoon shell protects the pupa from various unfavorable conditions.

Cocoons come in different colors: pink, greenish, yellow, etc. But for industrial needs, currently only breeds with white cocoons are bred. A butterfly is formed from the pupa. It secretes a special liquid that dissolves the sticky substance of the cocoon. With its head and legs, the butterfly pushes the silks apart and exits the cocoon through the resulting hole. Over the past decades, various breeds of silkworms have been developed, differing in the size of the cocoons, their color, length and strength of the thread.

Social and domesticated insects

Most insects lead a solitary lifestyle. However, there is alsosocial insects . These includetermites, bumblebees, wasps, bees, ants . The community of these insects is one large extended family. Social insects share food with each other, jointly care for larvae, and guard the nest.

Bees and ants are social insects

Bees.Social insects includehoney bee . A large family of bees numbers up to 100 thousand individuals that live in the hive. In a hive, most insects areworkers bees. These are infertile females in which a modified ovipositor servessting . They clean the hive, collect nectar, care for the queen and larvae, and protect the hive from enemies. They live for one warm season (less than a year). In a bee family, the main bee isuterus which lays eggs - up to 2000 per day. The queen bee is larger than the worker bees. She lives for about five years. In the spring, in May - June, a new queen and several dozen males appear from the pupae in the bee colony, which are calleddrones: They do not take any part in the work, and their main task is fertilization of the uterus. In the fall, worker bees drive the remaining drones out of the hive and they die.

All care for the hive lies with the worker bees: growing up, each worker bee changes several “professions”. She builds honeycombs, cleans the cells, feeds the larvae, takes food from arriving bees and distributes it in the hive, ventilates the hive, guards it and, finally, begins to fly out of the hive for nectar. Bees communicate with each other in the same way as ants - through touch and secreted substances.

However, only bees have a “dance language”. With the help of special body movements and movements, one bee can tell others where nectar-rich flowering plants are located. A scout bee "dances" in the hive on the honeycomb.

On the underside of the worker bee's abdomen there are special glands that secretewax . Bees, thanks to complex instincts, build from ithoneycomb . On the hind legs of bees there are areas surrounded by long chitinous hairs - baskets. Bees crawl on flowers, and pollen falls on the hairs of the insect's body. Then the bee cleans the pollen into the basket using special brushes on its legs. Soon a lump of pollen forms there - pollen, which the bee transfers to the hive.Perga - pollen soaked in honey serves as a reserve of protein food for the bee colony.

Worker bees have a peculiar expansion of the esophagus -honey goiter . From the nectar collected from flowers, which has passed through the honey sac, the main food supply of the bee colony is formed -honey . The cells are filled with honey and the bees cover them with a thin wax layer. In a year you can get up to 100 kg of honey from one bee colony.

Although people have been raising bees for a long time, collapsible frame hives were invented relatively recently - in 1814 by the Ukrainian beekeeper P. I. Prokopovich. Previously, in order to extract honey from a bee’s nest, which, as a rule, was located in a hollowed-out tree log, it was necessary to break the honeycomb, that is, to destroy bee family. The surviving swarm of bees can live independently, without human help. This indicates that bees are not yet fully domesticated.

Ants- social hymenoptera. They do not have a sting, but they have a poisonous gland, thanks to which they can protect themselves from enemies. Red forest ants bring great benefits to the forest. The ants of one anthill eat tens of thousands of insects per day and protect a forest covering an area of 0.2 hectares from pests. They live in families.

The anthill consists of above-ground and underground parts. Most The ants living in the anthill are made up of wingless workers - these are sterile females. Their number sometimes reaches a million. Besides them, the queen lives in the anthill. She also doesn't have wings. She breaks them off after the mating flight. She lays eggs all her life, and all the care for the anthill lies with the working ants. They obtain food, repair and clean the anthill, feed the larvae and the queen, and defend the anthill in case of attack by enemies. Once a year, at the beginning of summer, winged females and males appear in the anthill from pupae and set off on a mating flight. After mating, the males die, and the females shed their wings and establish a new anthill. They can also end up in the anthill in which they developed.

Most ants are predators. Some feed on the sweet secretions of aphids. For this purpose, ants protect, “graze”these insects feed on plants, and sometimes shelters are built for them. Other types of ants breed mushrooms in underground chambers for their food, bringing crushed plant leaves for this. There are herbivorous ants.

Ants communicate by touching each other with their antennae, legs and heads. In addition, they have a “chemical language” - they secrete special substances with which they mark their paths. Ants recognize relatives and enemies by smell.

WITH false behavior of social insects is called instinctive because instinct - a set of innate aspects of behavior, fixed hereditarily and characteristic of a certain species of animal. The behavior of bees, ants and some other animals is so surprising and complex that it leads many people to believe that it is intelligent. However, these actions of animals are instinctive and unconscious.

Domesticated insects

There is only one thing completelydomesticated insect , not found in nature in the wild, -silkworm ; females of this species have even “forgot how” to fly. An adult insect is a thick butterfly with whitish wings with a span of up to 6 cm. The caterpillars of this silkworm eat only mulberry or mulberry leaves.

Scientists suggest that in the wild, the ancestor of the silkworm lived in the foothills of the Himalayas. The butterfly was domesticated in China around 3 thousand years BC. e. Nowadays, this insect is completely domesticated. It is bred in China, Japan, Indochina, Southern Europe, South America, Central Asia and the Caucasus - where the mulberry tree can grow. There are several dozen breeds of silkworms, varying in length, strength and color of the silk thread they produce.

Female silkworms lay eggs (each female - up to 600 eggs), which are calledGreena . Caterpillars emerge from them. These caterpillars are fed mulberry leaves in special rooms on feeding shelves. During pupation, each caterpillar howls for three days.

Tasks:

introduce students to the diversity of Hymenoptera; reveal their characteristic features, role in nature and human life;
introduce the peculiarities of the life of social insects; lead to the formation of the concept of “instinct”;

continue to develop the skills to compare groups of animals with each other, find features of complexity, and work with additional literature; continue to develop students’ caring attitude towards nature. Equipment:

computer equipment, presentation on this lesson topic (Appendix 1), honey in combs, propolis, bee jelly, additional literature on this topic.

During the classes

I. Organizational moment.

II. Check of knowledge.

Frontal survey: A) General Features

insects

B) What insects belong to the order Lepidoptera?

C) List the main features of the representatives of this order.

D) What insects belong to the order Homoptera?

D) What insects belong to the order Diptera?

E) What danger do flies and fleas pose to humans?

Individual survey:

Cards:

No. 1. Answer the test questions:

For each test question, find only one correct answer:

1. The silkworm, which was domesticated by humans for the purpose of obtaining silk, belongs to the order:

A) Lepidoptera

B) homoptera

B) dipterans

1. The silkworm, which was domesticated by humans for the purpose of obtaining silk, belongs to the order:

A) Lepidoptera

B) homoptera

2. Insects belonging to the order

1. The silkworm, which was domesticated by humans for the purpose of obtaining silk, belongs to the order:

A) Lepidoptera

B) homoptera

3. Insects belonging to the order have one pair of wings, and the second is modified into halteres:

1. The silkworm, which was domesticated by humans for the purpose of obtaining silk, belongs to the order:

A) Lepidoptera

B) homoptera

4. The common aphid belongs to the order

5. Which butterfly caterpillars damage clothes, shoes, carpets:

A) cabbage whites

B) silkworm

D) lemongrass.

1. From the listed characteristics, select separately those that characterize representatives of Homoptera and those characterizing Diptera:

A) sucking insects that feed on plant sap;

B) oral apparatus licking or piercing-sucking;

B) two fore wings are well developed, the hind wings are either very small or absent; there are wingless individuals;

D) development occurs with complete transformation;

E) development occurs with incomplete transformation.

Homoptera are characterized by: ___________________________________

Diptera are characterized by:__________________________________________

№3. Write down examples of dipterans that are:

bloodsucking_________________

forming galls________________

predatory_________________________________

plant pests_____________________

exterminator orderlies_________________
III. Learning new material.

Today in class I am helped by biologists-entomologists__________, who study bees and ants, an ecologist _________, as well as a doctor_________.

Teacher's explanation using computer presentations .

1. general characteristics insects of the order Hymenoptera (slides 2-9)

A) number of species, representatives

B) distribution

B) structural features of the wings

D) the presence of antennae and eyes on the head

D) type of oral apparatus

E) type of development

G) meaning in nature and human life.

2. External structure of a honey bee (slide 10).

3. Composition of the bee family (slide 11).

Bee seven I consists in summer of 40-80 thousand adult bees - the offspring of one uterus- the only oviparous female in the entire hive. It can lay up to 150 thousand eggs per year, in the spring up to 3 thousand eggs per day. She doesn't do anything else, she is fed by worker bees.

The bulk - worker bees, also females, but with reduced genitals. For the first three days after birth, they act as cleaners. Next, they begin to feed the adult larvae with beebread - a mixture of pollen and honey. On the seventh day, they develop special glands in which bee jelly is produced and they begin to feed the queen and young larvae. On the tenth day, these glands disappear, and wax glands are formed - the bee switches to building honeycombs and processing nectar into honey. With the appearance of poisonous glands, it plays the role of a guard.

And only on the 21st day do worker bees fly out to collect nectar. Why?

In spring and summer, there are also males in the family - drones. They are not able to obtain food on their own (short tongue). After mating with the queen, there is no need for them, they are kicked out of the hive or not allowed back, and the drones quickly die of hunger.

There can only be one queen per hive. When a new one appears, the old one, along with some of the worker bees, flies out of the hive, they hang together somewhere on a tree branch - this is swarming. If the beekeeper does not place such a swarm in a new hive, they fly away somewhere and independently establish a new home.

IV. Press conference. Questions are asked by class students, and “biologists-entomologists”, “doctor”, “ecologist” are answered - also by class students.

Question: How do bees manage to build such geometrically correct structures - honeycombs?

How do bees manage to build such geometrically correct structures - honeycombs?

Slide 12. Where they go construction works, dense clusters of construction workers hang, inside each cluster the temperature is maintained at 35 degrees. This temperature is necessary for the wax to “sweat”. Its small scales protrude from the bee's four wax glands located on the underside of the bee's abdomen. With its hind legs, on the legs of which there are special bristles, the bee picks up the wax flakes and passes them to the mouth with its front legs. The builder thoroughly chews each wax flake, mixing the wax with saliva. Thanks to the high temperature, the wax acquires the ideal degree of softness.

It is surprising that the honeycomb is not built cell by cell: there are many hexagons in operation simultaneously at different points. In addition, construction workers change frequently, sometimes every half a minute. Before sticking its lump of wax, the bee recognizes where the work stopped and continues it correctly. When constructing a wall, the bee first lays a roughly molded wax roller, then, with planing and pulling movements of the jaws, pulls it into a thin sheet.

The wall thickness is checked many times, and excess wax is removed. The final wall thickness is 0.073 mm. Deviations in one direction or another are no more than 0.002 mm. How can bees determine wall thickness? It turns out that the ends of the palps continuously touch the wall. The “measuring instruments” are the front legs, as well as a group of highly sensitive hairs on the back of the bee’s head.

Despite the fact that the honeycombs are built from different places at the same time, it is impossible to see the joints on the finished honeycombs.

Question: What is a bee dance?

Slide 13: Worker bees dance on the honeycomb to tell others where to find nectar-rich flowers. The angle between the body axis and the vertical axis corresponds to the angle between the direction towards the food source and the direction towards the sun. If a food source is within 100 m, the bee dances in a circle; if it is further, the bee draws a figure eight.

Question: How do bees survive winter?

For the winter, the bees huddle into a tight ball, in the middle of which, where the queen is kept, the temperature is set at about 25 degrees due to the increased muscular activity of worker bees. At this time, the bees cover their energy needs from reserves of honey or sugar syrup provided by the beekeeper.

Question: What are the medicinal qualities of honey?

Bee honey is a unique food, dietary and medicinal product produced by honey bees from the nectar of flowering plants. It has a high calorie content (100g-320 kcal). Humanity has appreciated bee honey since ancient times. They have always cured colds.

The ancient Greek mathematician Pythagoras claimed that he lived to a ripe old age thanks to the systematic consumption of honey.

The outstanding doctor, naturalist and poet Ibn Sina pointed out: “if you want to preserve your youth, then be sure to eat honey.” He especially recommended regular consumption of honey for people over 45 years of age.

Honey has a calming effect nervous system and can be used as a sleeping pill. It reduces a sharp irritating cough, cures sore throat, liver and kidney diseases, any colds, and relieves pain from arthritis.

Bee honey stops the growth of bacterial flora. It kills the pathogenic bacteria E. coli and dysentery. When a person consumes comb honey, the wax that gets into the stomach is not absorbed by the body. It turns into a soft, elastic lubricant and has a beneficial soothing effect on the stomach and intestines.

Question: What is propolis? What can it be used for?

Propolis or “bee glue” is a product of bees processing the resinous substances of pollen grains collected on the flowers of medicinal plants.

It is used by bees to seal holes and cracks in the hive. Another use of propolis concerns cases when an animal gets into the hive. The inhabitants, armed with stingers, stab the uninvited stranger to death, and then cover them with an airtight shell of propolis - mummifying the corpse. By preventing rotting in this way, the bees protect themselves from possible infection.

Propolis was used to make that mysterious varnish that the old Italian masters used to coat their violins to achieve the best sound.

Propolis has pronounced antimicrobial properties, vitamin P activity, and analgesic effects. An alcohol solution of propolis can cure, for example, inflammation of the middle ear.

Teacher's explanation. Ant family (slide 14).

There are approximately 10 thousand species of ants. The community is more complex than that of bees. There can be up to 1 million individuals in an anthill, with up to ten females at a time.

An anthill is a complex structure, including underground and above-ground parts.

It is constantly being handled, maintaining a certain temperature. How?

Continuation of the press conference.

Question: How are responsibilities distributed in an anthill?

Most of all in the anthill there are worker ants - wingless females who perform all the work except laying eggs - they take care of the larvae, shovel the anthill, guard it, and bring prey to the anthill. In forest ants, worker individuals may differ in size. Young males and full-fledged females are easily recognized by the presence of wings. After mating, the females shed their wings and lay eggs, founding a new anthill. Males die after mating.

Question: What do ants eat?

Slide 15. Most ants prefer a mixed diet, and their favorite treat is sweet plant juices. However, ants are extremely rarely able to obtain sugary liquid on their own; they usually resort to the mediation of aphids. By tickling their abdomen with their antennae, the ants cause the aphids to secrete a drop of sugary excrement. This is why aphids are called the “cash cows” of ants.

South American leaf-cutter ants bring pieces of leaves to the nest, crush them, and prepare a nutrient medium for growing mushrooms, close relatives of our cap mushrooms. The club-shaped thickenings formed on the mycelium are eaten by the ants themselves and fed to their larvae.

Harvester ants living in Europe bring cereal seeds to their nests. Worker ants spend hours chewing grains, turning the starch into sugar. This is how “ant bread” is obtained, which adult ants and their larvae feed on immediately or after long-term storage.

Some ants are able to store honey for future use. Large worker ants play the role of vessels. In times of hunger, honey barrel ants drop by drop the contents of their crops to other inhabitants of the nest. One such “barrel” can feed a hundred ants for two weeks.

Question: Which insects of the order Hymenoptera are listed in the Red Book?

An “ecologist” answers using his own drawings of rare insects

Teacher's explanation. Is the complex activity of social insects innate or acquired? What is instinct?

Instinct is a consistent chain of innate responses to various stimuli.

V. Consolidation of knowledge.

Checking the recording of the general characteristics of insects of the Hymenoptera class by students in their notebooks.

Work on solving a crossword puzzle.

VI. Homework: prepare for a general lesson and project defense.

VII. Summing up the lesson. Grading.

» Arthropods » Beneficial insects

Insects, like all living organisms without exception, play an important role in nature. Representatives of this superclass (both large beetles and tiny flies) exist everywhere and take their place in the biosphere. There are practically no places on Earth where they are not at least one, or even several the most important links in the food chain. Some insects eat plants, some eat their own kind, but both the first and second serve as food for larger animals. From this point of view, tiny arthropods are no less significant elements of the fauna than, for example, animals or fish.

Don't forget that insects pollinate flowering plants, and this is the primary basis that ensures the functioning of most of the world's flora. What is a person? What does he get from beetles, butterflies, ants, grasshoppers and the like? It turns out that insects take an active part in our lives.

Domesticated insects

Throughout his existence, man has constantly domesticated animals, in particular those that were of obvious benefit to him, were easily kept in captivity and were amenable to training. Such pets are found among mammals, birds and even fish. Insects are not left out either: the honey bee and the silkworm are domesticated. True, these species are practically the only ones. Apart from them, the only people that come to mind are the inhabitants of exotariums and various exhibitions (stick insects, strange beetles and other tropical six-legged creatures), but it is a stretch to consider them domesticated.

In the service of man

Even if we leave aside the production of silk and the storehouse of products that the striped workers of the hives provide, the benefits of insects for humans are still undeniable. Pollination and its importance for wildlife, but it is obvious that this phenomenon is no less important for cultivated plants, and, consequently, for the world Agriculture and the economy as a whole. In addition, since some representatives of the superclass are pests, then who else can fight them if not their potential enemies ( carnivorous species), will become the most formidable weapon? It is for these purposes that, for example, the odorous beetle (Calosoma sycophanta), ichneumon wasps and other predators are used. No less valuable are cochineal mealybugs (Dactylopius coccus) - the dye carmine is extracted from them, as well as dried borers, click beetles and some other beetles - they are used for making jewelry. Finally, we should not forget that many insects can be eaten.

Refer to Figures 166, 167, 171 to see the structural features of the honey bee and the silkworm. How are these insects useful?

Types of domesticated insects. Of all the known insects, humans have domesticated only the honey bee and the silkworm. Bees began to be bred for honey and wax, and silkworms for silk. Subsequently, branches of the economy developed - beekeeping and sericulture.

Honey bee. This insect lives in large families: wild - in tree hollows, domestic - in hives. Each family has a female - the queen, several hundred males - drones and up to 70 thousand worker bees (Fig. 166).

The queen bee is the largest bee in the family. Starting in spring, she lays eggs day and night (up to 2000 per day). Drones are medium-sized bees with large eyes touching at the back of the head (they live in the colony from the time they emerge from the pupae until autumn). Worker bees are smaller than other family members and differ from them in a number of structural and behavioral features.

On the underside of the worker bee's abdomen there are smooth areas without hairs - speculum. Wax is released on their surface. Bees make hexagonal cells from it - honeycombs: large, medium and small. On the outer side of the hind legs of worker bees, one depression is noticeable, surrounded by long hairs. These are baskets. The hind legs also have brushes - wide segments with hard bristles (Fig. 167). With their help, bees collect adhering flower pollen from their bodies, moisten it with nectar and place it in baskets. The resulting clumps of pollen are called pollen pollen. Having arrived at the hive, the bees place them in the honeycombs. Other worker bees compact the pollen and soak it in honey. Bee bread is formed - a supply of protein feed.

Bees collect nectar from flowers in the extension of the esophagus (honey crop), and then secrete it into the cells of the honeycomb. Nectar mixed with secretions from the pharyngeal glands of a worker bee turns into honey. This creates a supply of sugary food in the hive. “Milk” is produced in special glands of worker bees. They feed it to the queen and white worm-like larvae that develop from the eggs laid by the queen.

At the end of the abdomen of worker bees there is a retractable serrated sting. This is a modified ovipositor. There is a poison gland at the base of the sting. With the help of a stinger, a bee stings its enemies. A bee that has stung a person cannot remove the sting from his skin, and it comes off with a piece of it. internal organs. This leads to the death of the bee.

Worker bees also do other work: ventilate the hive, clean it, and seal the cracks.

Development of bees. The uterus lays fertilized eggs in large and small cells, and unfertilized eggs in medium cells. The worker bees feed the larvae hatched from the eggs with “milk”. Then only the larvae developing in large cells receive the “milk”, the rest receive pollen and honey (Fig. 168). Queens emerge from large cells, drones emerge from medium cells, and worker bees emerge from small cells.

Swarming. Before leaving the cell, the young queen makes sounds. The old queen tries to kill her, but this is prevented by the worker bees protecting the young one.

Soon after this, the old queen leaves the nest with some of the worker bees. The emerging swarm of bees lands somewhere on a branch (Fig. 169) or at the base of a tree, and then, having found a hollow, the bees settle in it. Mating flight. The young queen emerging from the cell seeks out the sealed cells in which other queens are developing and kills them. After a few days, she flies out of the hive, rushes upward, and several dozen drones fly behind her. This is the mating flight of the female and males. After fertilization, the female returns to the hive and begins laying eggs.

Only the queen and worker bees overwinter in the apiary in hives (Fig. 170). The worker bees drive the drones out of the hive in the fall and they die.

Silkworm. The silkworm is a medium-sized white butterfly (Fig. 171). Before pupation, its caterpillars weave cocoons from silk thread, which is formed when the liquid secreted from the silk gland on the lower lip hardens.

Silkworm breeding began in China about 5 thousand years ago. In the process of domestication from generation to generation, butterflies that laid many eggs and had underdeveloped wings were left for breeding. As a result of long-term selection, female silkworms stopped flying, which made them easier to maintain. The selection of large cocoons led to the fact that their thread became long - up to 1000 m or more.

The spread of sericulture is associated with the places where the mulberry tree, or mulberry, grows, the leaves of which the silkworm caterpillars feed on. Over the past decades, various breeds of silkworms have been developed, differing in the size of the cocoons, their color, length and strength of the thread.

Female silkworms lay 300–600 eggs. The eggs are covered with a dense chitinized shell and are called grena. Caterpillars are raised on special shelves with canvas shelves. They are fed mulberry leaves.

Caterpillars grow and moult. After the fourth molt, brooms made of dry twigs - cocoon racks - are placed on the shelves. Caterpillars crawl onto them, spin cocoons and pupate.

The cocoons are collected and some of them are sent to special stations to obtain greens, while the rest are sent to factories, where they are treated with hot steam and unwound on special machines. The threads are used to make silk, and the frozen pupae are used to feed farm animals.

➊ What insects are domesticated by humans and for what purpose? ➋ What is the composition of the bee colony? ➌ What kind of work do worker bees do in a colony? ➍ What adaptations do worker bees have for collecting pollen and nectar, for building honeycombs, and for feeding larvae? ➎ In what case do queens hatch from eggs laid by a queen, and in what case do drones and worker bees hatch? ➏ What is a swarm of bees and how is it formed? ➐ What is the significance of the honey bee in nature and in human life? ➑ For what purpose are silkworms bred? ➒ What changes occurred to the silkworm during the process of domestication? ➓ How are silkworm caterpillars raised?

Using Figure 77, remember what types of animals you studied and what main classes they combine. From type to type, trace which animals developed certain organ systems, how they improved during historical development animal world.

In order for 100 g of honey to be produced in a hive, a worker bee must visit about 1,000,000 flowers. A person receives from bees not only honey and wax, but also poison, royal jelly, propolis (the glue that bees use to seal the cracks in the hive), which are widely used in medicine.
In sericulture farms, 70-80 kg of cocoons are obtained from 25 g of grain.

Types of domestic insects.

Bee family.

Worker bees also perform other work: ventilate the hive, clean it, seal the cracks, etc. Each of them goes through all types of activities during its life as it develops certain glands.

Bee development.

Silkworm.

Over the past decades, various breeds of silkworms have been developed, differing in the size of the cocoons, their color, length and strength of the thread.

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PIKINGDOOM MULTICELLULAR ANIMALS

TYPE ARTHROPODA

DOMESTIC INSECTS

Types of domestic insects. Since ancient times, people have been breeding certain types of insects to obtain valuable products from them. First of all, it is a honey bee, which gives humans honey, propolis, bee bread, royal jelly, and wax. Breeding silkworms to obtain natural silk - important industry national economy of many countries.

Honey bee. Bees are social insects. They live in large families: wild ones in tree hollows, domestic ones in hives. Each family has a female - the queen, several hundred males - drones (they live from the time they emerge from the pupae until autumn) and up to 70 thousand worker bees. The queen bee is the largest bee in the family, whose function is to lay eggs. Starting in spring, the queen lays about 2 thousand eggs per day. Drones are medium-sized bees with large eyes that touch at the back of their heads. It is the drones that fertilize the queen. All the work in the hive is done by worker bees - underdeveloped females incapable of reproducing. They are smaller than other family members.

Features of the structure and behavior of worker bees. On the underside of the worker bee's abdomen there are smooth, hairless areas - mirrors, on the surface of which wax is secreted, from which it makes hexagonal cells - honeycombs (large, medium and small). On the hind legs of bees there is one “basket” and one “tassel” with which they collect pollen. Having arrived at the hive, the bees place it in the cells of the honeycomb. Other worker bees compact the pollen and soak it in honey. Bee bread is formed - a supply of protein feed. Bees regurgitate the nectar collected from flowers into honeycombs from the honey crop. Here it turns into honey - a supply of sugary food. “Milk” is produced in special glands of worker bees. They feed the queen and larvae with it.

At the end of the abdomen of worker bees there is a retractable serrated sting, which is connected to a poison gland and is used for protection.

In addition, worker bees ventilate the hive, clean it, seal the cracks, etc. Each of them, during its life, goes through all types of activities to the extent that certain glands develop in it.

Bee development. The queen lays fertilized eggs in large and small honeycombs, and unfertilized eggs in medium ones. The larvae that develop from eggs are fed “milk” by worker bees. Then only the larvae of large ones receive the “milk”, while others receive pollen and honey. After the last moult of the larvae, the worker bees seal the honeycombs with wax. Soon the larvae turn into pupae, and subsequently into adult insects. They gnaw through the wax caps and crawl to the surface of the wax. The large ones produce queen bees, the medium ones produce drones, and the small ones produce worker bees.

Silkworm. This is a medium-sized white butterfly. While lining, its caterpillar wraps itself with a thin thread, which is secreted by the spinning glands. Unwinding these cocoons, a person receives natural silk. Silkworm breeding began in China about 5 thousand years ago. In the process of domestication from generation to generation, butterflies were left for breeding; they laid many eggs and had underdeveloped wings, and large cocoons were woven from their caterpillars (their thread reached a length of up to 1000 m or more).

In recent decades, various breeds of silkworms have been bred, differing in the size of the cocoons, their color, length and strength of the thread.

Of all the known insects, humans have domesticated only the honey bee and the silkworm. When breeding bees, it was possible to have honey and wax, and when breeding silkworms, silk was possible.

Bee family

Honeybees live in large families: wild ones in tree hollows, domestic ones in hives. Each family has a female - the queen, several hundred males - drones (they live from the time they emerge from the pupae until autumn) and up to 70 thousand worker bees. The queen bee is the largest bee in the family. Starting in spring, she lays eggs (up to 2000 per day). Drones are medium-sized bees with large eyes touching at the back of the head. They fertilize the uterus. Worker bees do all the work in the hive. They are smaller than the rest of the family.

Honey bees

Around 14-15 days, the productivity of the wax glands drops sharply and the bees switch to the following types of nest care activities - they clean the cells, clean up and remove garbage. From the age of about 20 days, bees switch to ventilating the nest and guarding the entrance. Bees older than 22-25 days are mainly engaged in honey collection. To inform other bees about the location of nectar, the foraging bee uses visual biocommunication. Bees over 30 days old switch from honey collection to collecting water for the needs of the family. This bee life cycle is designed for the most rational utilization of nutrients and the use of the available number of bees in the family. The bee's body contains the largest amount of excess nutrients when it leaves the cell. At the same time, most bees die when they take water from natural reservoirs. Much fewer of them die when collecting honey from flowers and when approaching the hive.

Silkworm

Silkworm

The silkworm, like other butterflies, develops with complete transformation. The silkworm butterfly has a wingspan of 40 to 60 mm. The color of its body and wings is dirty white with more or less distinct brownish bands. By appearance, a female silkworm is quite easy to distinguish from a male. She has a more massive abdomen than the male, and her antennae are less developed. On the first day after leaving the cocoon (silk shell), the female insect lays eggs, the so-called grena. A clutch contains on average from 500 to 700 eggs. Egg laying lasts three days.

A caterpillar emerges from an egg. She grows quickly and sheds four times. Caterpillars develop within 26–32 days. The duration of their development depends on the breed, temperature, air humidity, quantity and quality of food, etc. The silkworm caterpillar feeds on mulberry leaves. At the end of development, the caterpillar strongly develops a pair of silk glands. They intensively secrete liquid, which quickly thickens in air, turning into a silk thread. From this thinnest thread, reaching 1000 m in length, the caterpillar spins a cocoon. In the cocoon, the caterpillar turns into a pupa. The co-con shell protects the pupa from various adverse conditions.

Cocoons come in different colors: pink, greenish, yellow, etc. But for industrial needs, currently only breeds with white cocoons are bred. A butterfly is formed from the pupa.

It secretes a special liquid that dissolves the sticky substance of the cocoon. With its head and legs, the butterfly pushes the silks apart and exits the cocoon through the resulting hole. Over the past decades, various breeds of silkworms have been developed, differing in the size of the cocoons, their color, length and strength of the thread.

PIKINGDOOM MULTICELLULAR ANIMALS

TYPE ARTHROPODA

DOMESTIC INSECTS

Types of domestic insects. Since ancient times, people have been breeding certain types of insects to obtain valuable products from them. First of all, it is a honey bee, which gives humans honey, propolis, bee bread, royal jelly, and wax. Silkworm breeding for the purpose of producing natural silk is an important branch of the national economy of many countries.

Honey bee. Bees are social insects. They live in large families: wild ones - in tree hollows, domestic ones - in beehives. Each family has a female - the queen, several hundred males - drones (they live from the time they emerge from the pupae until autumn) and up to 70 thousand worker bees. The queen bee is the largest bee in the family, whose function is to lay eggs. Starting in spring, the queen lays about 2 thousand eggs per day. Drones are medium-sized bees with large eyes that touch at the back of their heads. It is the drones that fertilize the queen. All the work in the hive is done by worker bees - underdeveloped females, incapable of reproduction. They are smaller than other family members.

In addition, worker bees ventilate the hive, clean it, seal the cracks, etc. Each of them, during its life, goes through all types of activities to the extent that certain glands develop in it.

Bee development. The queen lays fertilized eggs in large and small honeycombs, and unfertilized eggs in medium ones. The larvae that develop from eggs are fed “milk” by worker bees. Then only the larvae of large ones receive the “milk”, while others receive pollen and honey. After the last moult of the larvae, the worker bees seal the honeycombs with wax. Soon the larvae turn into pupae, and subsequently into adult insects. They gnaw through the wax caps and crawl to the surface of the wax. Queen bees emerge from large ones, drones emerge from medium-sized ones, and worker bees emerge from small ones.

Silkworm. This is a medium-sized white butterfly. While lining, its caterpillar wraps itself with a thin thread, which is secreted by the spinning glands. By unwinding these cocoons, a person receives natural silk. Silkworm breeding began in China about 5 thousand years ago. In the process of domestication from generation to generation, butterflies were left for breeding; they laid many eggs and had underdeveloped wings, and large cocoons were woven from their caterpillars (their thread reached a length of up to 1000 m or more).

In recent decades, various breeds of silkworms have been bred, differing in the size of the cocoons, their color, length and strength of the thread.