Most bees don’t die after stinging – and other surprising bee facts

• But maybe we also felt a tinge of regret, or vindication, knowing the offending bee will die.
• Only eight out of almost 21,000 bee species in the world die when they sting.
• To understand the intricacies of bees and their stinging potential, we’re going to need to talk about the shape of stingers, bee genitals, and attitude.

Our beloved, and deadly, honey bees

• Native to Europe and Africa, these bees are today found almost everywhere in the world.
• They are one of eight honey bee species worldwide, with Apis bees representing just 0.04% of total bee species.
• We could say they die for queen and colony, but the actual reason these bees die after stinging is because of their barbed stingers.
• Beyond that, bees and wasps (probably mostly European honey bees) are Australia’s deadliest venomous animals.

So what is a stinger?

A stinger, at least in most bees, wasps and ants, is actually a tube for laying eggs (ovipositor) that has also been adapted for violent defence. This group of stinging insects, the aculeate wasps (yes, bees and ants are technically a kind of wasp), have been stabbing away in self-defence for 190 million years. You could say it’s their defining feature.

• The sting of the European honey bee is about as painful as a bee sting gets, scoring a 2 out of 4 on the Schmidt insect sting pain index.
• On the flipside, most bee species can sting you as many times as they like because their stingers lack the barbs found in honey bees.

Can you tell who’s packing?

Globally, there are 537 species (about 2.6% of all bee species) of “stingless bees” in the tribe Meliponini. We have only 11 of these species (in the genera Austroplebeia and Tetragonula) in Australia. These peaceful little bees can also be kept in hives and make honey. Stingless bees can still defend their nests, when offended, by biting. But you might think of them more as a nuisance than a deadly stinging swarm.
Australia also has the only bee family (there are a total of seven families globally) that’s found on a single continent. This is the Stenotritidae family, which comprises 21 species. These gentle and gorgeous giants (14–19mm in length, up to twice as long as European honey bees) also get around without a functional stinger.
The astute reader might have realised something by this point in the article. If stingers are modified egg-laying tubes … what about the boys? Male bees, of all bee species, lack stingers and have, ahem, other anatomy instead. However, some male bees will still make a show of “stinging” if you try to grab them. Some male wasps can even do a bit of damage, though they have no venom to produce a sting.

Why is it always the honey bees?

• So, if the majority of bees can sting, why is it always the European honey bee having a go?
• First, the European honey bee is very abundant across much of the world.
• So those hardworking European honey bees are really putting in the miles.

A complicated relationship

• We have an interesting relationship with our European honey bees.
• They can be deadly, are non-native (across much of the world), and will aggressively defend their nests.

• Amy-Marie Gilpin receives funding from Western Sydney University and Horticulture Innovation Australia.
• She is also a member of the IUCN Wild Bee Specialist Group Oceania.