Tuesday, January 20, 2009
The Honey Bee (Apis mellifera)
The honey bee (Apis mellifera) lives in colonies of many thousand individuals which live in a hive (an artificially constructed nest). There are three types of honey bee: queens, drones and workers.
Queen. There is only one queen in a hive. She is the only bee that can lay eggs. She is fed by the workers. She is mated by one of the drones and stores his sperms in a special sac in her body. This supply of sperms lasts for her lifetime.
Drones are male bees. Their function is to fertilise the next queen when she hatches. They do not collect nectar or pollen but are fed by the workers. There are only a few hundred drones per hive. In winter they are expelled from the hive.
Workers are female bees but they are sterile, i.e. they cannot lay eggs. There may be 20,000 to 80,000 workers in a hive. Among other duties, the workers construct the honeycomb using wax secreted from glands on their abdomens. The combs consist of an array of hexagonal cells into which eggs are laid or nectar and pollen stored.
Eggs laid by the queen in some of these cells develop into larvae which are fed by the workers until they become pupae. The workers then put a capping over the cells until the adult bees are ready to emerge.
Workers duties. The workers carry out a sequence of duties as they become older. At first they clean the hive by removing dead larval skins and dead bees. Later they start to feed the larvae on nectar and pollen. After 10 to 12 days their wax glands become active and they build the cells of the honeycomb. In about three weeks, the workers leave the hive and go foraging for nectar and pollen from flowers. They take these products back to the hive and store them in the cells.
D G Mackean is the author of GCSE Biology, IGCSE Biology, and many other Biology text books. He has a site of biology-resourcesBiology Teaching Resources Buprenorphine biology-resourcesbiology-resources which includes a bank of experiments for teachers, sample PowerPoint presentations, and many biological drawings
Are You PSP Crazy?
Sony's Playstation Portable (PSP) has revolutionized the way we look at portable gaming. The PSP is the greatest handheld game device up to date. No handhelds can do the kind of media the PSP can do. In terms of quality in games, viewing videos, sharing pictures, playing tunes, and browsing the internet, the PSP is the leader in my book.
The game library for the PSP is growing, and growing every day; thus making it a richer handheld device. There's got to be something interesting on the PSP out there for even the pickiest game player.
I got my PSP two years ago and still love it like the day when I first bought it. I would not trade it for any other handheld game system. I can say for sure, I give it a daily usage, to get myself entertained when there is nothing better to do. Nice to know I have it ready on the go, or just as an alternative to playing my PS3 when I am indoors.
I have many games stored in my PSP. Being able to play Emulators is without a doubt one of the best things that happened to the PSP. Yes, I am PSP crazy. I have even replaced my attention I had for my PS2 to my PSP. I have been on the internet finding out more about it, reading reviews, news, gossip on what is happening, new applications being develop, and more stuff. That of which makes me think, I am not the only PSP crazy here, but also all the ones who develop homebrew games, for example, and of course all the players who have the passion for the PSP's capability. Haha!
Visit my antidpressant pspgamesandmedia.blogspotPSP Games and Media blog here! You will find lots of great content, such as how-tos, recent PSP news, gossip, and applications, homebrew installment, game downloads, comics, and more.
