Nothing about a honey bee fails to amaze me, and their legs are no exception. The following Honey Bee Legs Quiz is difficult, so consider it a learning experience. I thought I knew this material inside and out, but as I went from source to source to double check my facts, I found some discrepancies.
The parts of the legs are pretty straight forward, but their purpose is often a little hazy. You would think that we beekeepers and bee researchers would know all the details by now, but apparently not. Like I did in the Drone Quiz, I’ve tried to expand on the answers in the results page and mention areas that are confusing.
The Honey Bee Legs Quiz contains 16 questions. They are all worth 6 points except the last four, which are worth 7. Last month, I found that the scores kept improving as time went on. I decided that either people were re-taking the test or they were reading the comments where people discussed the questions (or both). So this time, you can still leave a comment, but I am going to hold those that give away the answers for a couple of days until more people get a chance to take the quiz. Just be patient and have fun.
Rusty
Honey Bee Suite
Honey bee legs are tricky. © Rusty Burlew.
Cute test, give us more of them
Hard
50%! I think that’s good considering I’ve not studied the anatomy of any insect since biology class decades ago. When I can, I love just watching the bees come and go from their hives. Now I can practice my new anatomy terms as I watch them! I know they’re a lot of effort on your part, but I’m sure thankful for the quizzes, Rusty. I have a lot to learn and you help make it fun.
Thanks, Alice. I know the quiz was hard, but I hope to get beekeepers thinking about how a bee actually functions. When you know what they are doing, it makes them all the more fascinating.
Thanks for the quiz Rusty. I had never given bees legs much thought before. Only scored a 69% so I really need to get better educated. Please keep the quizes coming.
Yes, quite difficult.
Nice article
Excellent quiz. Thank you.
(in my most obnoxious whiny-baby voice) This test was too ha-ard!
Well, you were forewarned! I will go lighter next time.
Woohoo! I’d hope to do well on this – I did the BBKA module 5 last year (on honeybee biology). Still, you managed to come up with something I’d never heard of – Q15!
All the best.
Just sat the ‘final’ module 8 last week, so wish me luck!
Alistair,
I do wish you the best.
I learn so much from these. Thank you!!
A lot to learn. Thanks.
I’m loving these quizzes Rusty, good fun and very testing but most of all they force further study, especially when one scores so poorly! I’m sure I am not alone in appreciation for your work in putting the tests together. It must be a LOT of work. Thanks!
🙂
Thanks, Ray. They are a lot of work, partly because I check multiple sources for each question, and partly because I’m still fighting with the software. On the other hand, I learn a lot too, which is always helpful. My desk is still strewn with bee books, all open to the anatomy section.
I never stop reading, there is always something new to learn, and as you said recently the more you learn the more you realise you don’t know!
I did pretty good, (82%) tho when I tried to cheat by look at one of my teaching slides, it gave me almost no help. (I’ll have to fix that.)
Rusty, you know that you are the Bees Knees!
That is really good, Glen!
Ouch, I think I need to pay more attention. Nice quiz!!
57%. I can’t even pretend to know most of these answers, so even that low score was just lucky guessing! Thanks for the time you put into the quizzes. Much fun!
Hi Rusty,
Many thanks for coming up with such an brilliant, interesting and difficult quiz.
But I am going to be pedantic and query the answer to question 5. Does the bee thorax have 3 segments or 4? According to Rosanna Mattingly in one of your favourite bee anatomy books “the thorax of the honey bee has three segments plus one” … “the fourth segment is one that provides a point of potential confusion. This additional segment in the thorax is one that generally occurs in the abdomen of insects.”
“The naming of the fourth segment in the thorax is consistent with its overall location and structure in insects.”
To me this succinct description says that indeed a bee has 4 segments in the thorax, so the answer to question 5 is false.
MerryBee,
What appears to be a fourth thoracic segment in bees is actually the first abdominal segment. This is based on two things: development and structure. For clarification see my post on naming segments. The first abdominal segment remains abdominal in structure but is attached to the thorax. If you look at Mattingly’s diagram on p. 38, you will see the three thoracic segments (I-III) and the first abdominal segment, I. This is why it’s always better to use mesosoma and metasoma instead of thorax and abdomen.
Also see The Insect Thorax: “The thorax is the second of three major tagma, or segments that make up an insect’s body. The thorax of an insect is where all appendages for locomotion are, including legs and wings. The thorax consists of three segments, known as the prothorax, the mesothorax, and the metathorax, in that order.”
I stand by my answer.
Agree it was harder. just shows how much more I don’t know about legs than drones. Thank you, Rusty, for the challenge.
You made me work hard for my 74% (Thank you Sam Droege for the identification class.)
I could not call to mind how the legs moved, even after watching
honey bees for hours over my lifetime. Obviously I need to watch
more carefully.
Loved this!
I flunked! 38%. Will you provide a normalization or curve for folks ignorant of entomology? I should have known the number of legs on these critters. My bad.
What? Mr. Honey Bee Suite got a 38%? How many legs did you think they had?
I confused your darlings with arachnids!
Nice!
Having not studied any more than the very basic honey bee anatomy I found this quiz both challenging and extremely interesting. Keep these quizzes coming!!