Bee Anatomy: A Visual Guide

The Head

The bee's head houses the brain, sensory organs, and feeding apparatus. Despite being tiny, it's packed with sophisticated equipment.

Eyes

Bees have five eyes: two large compound eyes on the sides of the head, plus three small ocelli (simple eyes) on top.

Antennae

Each antenna contains about 170 odor receptors, giving bees an incredibly acute sense of smell. They use antennae to:

• Detect flower scents and nectar
• Recognize nestmates by colony odor
• Follow the queen's pheromones
• Feel surfaces and sense air movement
• Taste (yes, they can taste with their antennae)

Mouthparts

Bees have chewing-lapping mouthparts—they can both bite (with mandibles) and drink (with a tongue). The proboscis is a long, straw-like tongue used to suck up nectar from flowers.

When not in use, the proboscis folds back under the head. Extended, it can reach deep into flower corollas to access nectar.

The Thorax

The thorax is the locomotion center—where wings and legs attach. It's packed with powerful flight muscles and contains no digestive organs.

Wings

Bees have four wings: a larger forewing and smaller hindwing on each side. In flight, tiny hooks (hamuli) connect the wings on each side so they beat as one unit.

Legs

Each of the six legs is specialized for different tasks:

When you see a bee with bright yellow or orange lumps on her back legs, that's pollen—evidence of a successful foraging trip.

The Abdomen

The abdomen contains most of the bee's internal organs: heart, digestive system, reproductive organs, and important glands. It's also where you'll find the sting apparatus in female bees.

Wax Glands

Worker bees have eight wax glands on the underside of their abdomen. These secrete tiny wax scales that bees chew and shape into honeycomb. Wax production peaks when bees are 12-18 days old.

Honey Stomach

Also called the crop, this expandable sac stores nectar during foraging trips. A valve (proventriculus) separates it from the true stomach—bees can carry nectar back to the hive without digesting it. Learn more in How Bees Make Honey.

The Stinger

Only female bees (queens and workers) have stingers—it's a modified egg-laying organ. The worker's stinger has barbs that catch in mammalian skin, tearing the stinger and venom sac from the bee's body when she pulls away. The bee dies, but the stinger continues pumping venom.

Nasonov Gland

Located at the tip of the abdomen, this gland releases pheromones that help bees find the hive entrance or recruit nestmates to a location. When you see bees at the entrance with abdomens raised, fanning—they're releasing Nasonov pheromone.

External Features

Exoskeleton

Like all insects, bees have an external skeleton made of chitin. This provides structure and protection, but it means bees can't grow gradually—they molt through larval stages, then emerge as adults at full size.

Hair (Setae)

Bees are covered in branched hairs that trap pollen as they visit flowers. These hairs also help regulate body temperature and sense air currents. Young bees appear fuzzy; older foragers look more worn and bald as hairs break off.

Telling Bees Apart by Body

Understanding anatomy helps you identify the three bee types:

With practice, you'll spot these differences during hive inspections. See our guide to types of bees in a hive for more on their roles.

Engineered for Survival

Every feature of a bee's body has been refined over 100+ million years of evolution. From ultraviolet vision to pollen baskets, from chemical-sensing antennae to precisely engineered wings—it's a masterpiece of biological engineering packed into a body weighing less than a paperclip.

As a beekeeper, you don't need to memorize every anatomical detail. But understanding the basics helps you appreciate what you're looking at during inspections—and recognize when something isn't quite right.