Stinger
A stinger (or sting) is a sharp
An
Stinging insects produce a painful swelling of the skin, the severity of the lesion varying according to the location of the sting, the identity of the insect and the sensitivity of the subject. Many species of
While the overwhelming majority of insects withdraw their stingers from their victims, a few insects leave them in the wounds. For example, of the 20,000 species of bees worldwide, only the half-dozen species of honeybees (Apis) are reported to have a barbed stinger that cannot be withdrawn; of wasps, nearly all are reported to have smooth stingers with the exception of two species, Polybia rejecta and Synoeca surinama. A few non-insect arthropods, such as scorpions, also sting.
Arthropods
Among arthropods, a sting or stinger is a sharp organ, often connected with a venom gland and adapted to inflict a wound by piercing, as with the caudal sting of a scorpion. Stings are usually located at the rear of the animal. Animals with stings include bees, wasps (including hornets) and scorpions,[2][3] as well as a single beetle species (Onychocerus albitarsis) that can deliver a venomous sting from its antennae, whose terminal segments have evolved to resemble a scorpion's tail.[4]
In all stinging Hymenoptera the sting is a modified ovipositor.[5] Unlike most other stings, honey bee workers' stings are strongly barbed and lodge in the flesh of mammals upon use, tearing free from the honey bee's body, killing the bee within minutes.[2] The sting has its own ganglion, and it continues to saw into the target's flesh and release venom for several minutes. This trait is of obvious disadvantage to the individual but protects the hive from attacks by large animals; aside from the effects of the venom, the remnant also marks the stung animal with honey bee alarm pheromone. The barbs of a honey bee's attack are only suicidal if the skin is elastic, as is characteristic of vertebrates such as birds and mammals; honey bees can sting other insects repeatedly without dying.[6]
The sting of nearly all other bees and other sting-bearing organisms is not barbed and can be used to sting repeatedly. The description of barbed or unbarbed is not precise: there are barbs on the stings of
The stings of some wasps, such as those of the
Spiders only bite, although some tarantulas have barbed bristles called
Other animals
Organs that perform similar functions in non-arthropods are often referred to as "stings". These organs include the modified
The term sting was historically often used for the
See also
- Bee sting
- Cnidocyte
- Chelicerae
- Forcipule
- Insect bite
- Schmidt Sting Pain Index
- Starr sting pain scale
- Stinging plant
References
- S2CID 20615755.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-674-01882-2.
- ^ "Oxford Dictionaries". oxforddictionaries.com. Archived from the original on May 20, 2013. Retrieved 21 January 2015.
- S2CID 30226487.
- .
- ^ "How Bees Work". HowStuffWorks. 2007-05-30. Retrieved 2022-04-26.
- ^ Greene, Albert; Breisch, Nancy; Golden, David; Kelly, Denise; Douglass, Larry. "Sting Embedment and Avulsion in Yellowjackets (Hymenoptera: Vespidae): a Functional Equivalent to Autotomy". Oxford Academic. Entomological Society of America. Retrieved 7 March 2019.
- ^ Welsh, John H., and Carolyn S. Batty. "5-Hydroxytryptamine Content of Some Arthropod Venoms and Venom-containing Parts." Toxic on 1.4 (1963): 165-70. Web.
- ^ "sting: definition of sting in Oxford dictionary (American English) (US)". oxforddictionaries.com. Archived from the original on January 7, 2013.
- ^ Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. "Sting ... Applied also to the fang or venom-tooth (and erroneously to the forked tongue) of a poisonous serpent."
External links
- Media related to Stingers at Wikimedia Commons