Glossary

Hamuli are hooks that connect the pair of wings on each side of a bee while it is flying, giving the appearance of honey bees having only two wings instead of four.

Honey bees as a species are haplodiploid. Males, or drones, are haploid organisms, meaning each of their cells possesses a single set of chromosomes inherited from their mother. Females are diploid organisms, meaning each of their cells (excluding sperm and eggs) possesses two sets of chromosomes (one inherited from their mother and one from their father).

Male honey bees are haploid organisms, meaning each of their cells possesses a single set of chromosomes inherited from their mother. See haplodiploid.

Heater bees generate heat in the brood nest to ensure that pupae are incubated at the proper temperature (91 to 97°F, or 33 to 36°C).

Hemolymph is analogous to blood in the honey bee. It circulates freely through the bees’ bodies, rather than being confined to arteries, capillaries, and veins as in the human body.

High fructose corn syrup is a liquid sweetener made from cornstarch that is sometimes fed to honey bee colonies as a carbohydrate supplement.

The honey bee hindgut is the posterior part of the digestive system where waste is stored for eventual excretion through the rectum. It also contains waste filtered from the hemolymph by Malpighian tubules.

The hive is a physical, manmade structure that houses a colony of bees and their nest of brood and food. The word “hive” is often mistakenly used interchangeably with “colony”, but it should be distinguished between the bees and their physical home.

Honey is the sugary food substance that honey bees produce from concentrating and chemically converting nectar. Water is evaporated from the nectar until the water content is approximately 17% to19%, and enzymes and bacteria are added to break down sucrose in nectar into fructose and glucose. When this process is complete, the nectar has been converted into honey. The bees cap the cells of honey with wax for storage.

A honey bound colony has nectar and honey filling the cells in the brood nest, restricting the area in which the queen can lay eggs.

The honey crop (also called a honey stomach) is a specialized part of the gut that stores nectar, honey, or water. A valve called the proventriculus at the base of the crop prevents nectar or water that a forager has collected from moving into the ventriculus and being digested.

See nectar flow.

See honey crop.

See comb.

Hormones are chemicals secreted into hemolymph and carried to specific organs and tissues to influence how they function. Unlike pheromones, hormones do not leave the body. In the honey bee, as in humans, hormones are involved in reproduction, development, and the general functioning of the body.

House bees are worker bees that perform necessary tasks inside the hive, such as tending to brood or the queen (when they are known as nurse bees, or the queen’s retinue, respectively).

Hygienic behavior is a trait where workers are able to detect, uncap, chew down and/or remove infected pupae. It is a mechanism of social immunity to help reduce the spread of pathogens.

Hymenoptera is an order classification of insects. Hymenoptera includes ants, bees, and wasps. They typically have four membranous wings joined together by small hooks (hamuli). They are also the biggest-brained insects. Within Hymenoptera, there are nine families of bees.

Hypopharyngeal glands are located in the heads of nurse bees where they produce and secrete royal jelly to feed larvae.