Scientists have captured the action of a honeybee stinger on video for the first time

Specialists from Macquarie University in Australia used high-speed video recording at 100 and 300 frames per second. To capture the process, the scientists made a honeybee sting a transparent gel simulating human flesh. The research results were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

As it turned out, the two-millimeter stinger is equipped with two rows of saw-toothed blades with barbs resembling a harpoon. The lancets alternately move along a rail system, catch on tissues, and sink deeper into the skin. Inside the pumping chamber, there are valves that act as folding pistons: moving in opposite directions, they ensure a continuous supply of venom from the sac.

The bee itself, after losing the stinger, is doomed to perish and dies within a few minutes or hours due to fluid loss and nervous system failure. At the same time, wasps, hornets, honeybee queens, bumblebees, and carpenter bees have smooth stingers and can sting an unlimited number of times. A unique stinging apparatus is found only in worker bees, of which there are about 60,000 in each hive.

The authors of the work note that the features of the biological mechanism of the bee stinger can be useful in developing future medical devices, such as insulin pumps, based on the same principles.