Post-Stinging Behavior of Worker Honey Bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae)

Following sting autotomy, honey bee workers continue to participate in colony defense by following and harassing potential predators. Bees that pursue a human observer are highly likely to have previously stung a leather target at the colony entrance. Wing wear and other characteristics of the pursuing bees suggest that they are soldier or guard bees rather than foragers or younger bees. We compared the responses of different behavioral castes by inducing a bee to sting and then assessing the response of that bee to other bees; after stinging, guard bees displayed heightened activity, but soldiers, foragers, or hive bees did not. Removal of the sting in coldnarcotized bees showed that the physiological stimulus for pursuit behavior was not solely the removal of the sting. The continued defensive role for bees that have lost their sting retains the residual value of individual workers to the colony.