Articles

Worker Honeybees

Robert E. Kofahl & Kelly L. Segraves

Every living creature is an integrated system which lives and functions as a whole. An excellent example of this is provided by the worker honeybee. Consider certain parts of the worker bee's body and their vital functions. 13

1. Compound eyes can analyze polarized light for navigation by the sun even in cloudy weather and for flower recognition.

2. Three single eyes on the head probably have some navigational function.

3. Antennae supply sense of smell and touch.

4. Grooves on front legs clean antennae.

5. Hairs on head, thorax, and legs collect pollen.

6. Pollen baskets on rear legs carry collected pollen.

7. The tube-like proboscis sucks nectar, honey, and water, and curls back under the head.

8. Mandibles crush and form wax for comb-building.

9. A honey sac provides temporary storage of honey.

10. Enzymes in honey sac begin the transformation of nectar to honey.

11. Glands in abdomen produce beeswax, which is secreted as scales on rear segments of body.

12. Long spines on middle legs remove wax scales from glands.

13. Pronged claws on each foot cling to flowers.

14. Glands in head of adult worker make royal jelly for the development of a new queen bee.

15. Marginal hooks fasten front and rear wings together for flight, disengage at rest for compact storage of wings.

16. Barbed poison sting serves for defense.

17. Complex instincts cause entire hive to function as a single organism.

Without all of these design features and many more the worker bees could not function in the hive; as a result the hive would perish. Actually, the entire hive of bees functions as a single living organism. The queen controls the life and development of the hive by means of chemical substances called pheromones which circulate through the hive population in the food supply. The social organization in the hive is truly marvelous. One of the most remarkable features of this organization is the dance language used by a returning worker to inform other bees of the location and preferred course to a new source of nectar. The honeybee is surely the result of intelligent design.

The same may be said of the orb weaving spider. The selection of several protein formulations which she incorporates in up to seven different kinds of silk and the complex spinnarets having hundreds of microscopic holes through which the precisely formed threads are spun have not been explained on the basis of accidental, purposeless evolution. 14 The beautiful design of the orb web is a miniature engineering wonder, but the spider learns her web-building technique from no one. The spider was, so to speak, hatched with a degree in web engineering. It may also be pointed out that no fossil evidence exists to prove the evolutionary origin or ancestor of spiders. The mute orb-weaving spider bears eloquent witness to the reality of design in nature.

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