Now the same team has identified the mechanism behind that movement. Specializedmembranes that connect a honey bee's abdominal segments are thicker on the top of theabdomen than on the bottom, allowing curling in just one direction.
Honey bee abdomens contain up to nine overlapping segments that are similar to little armored plates. A thin, flexible layer of cells called the folded intersegmental membrane (FIM) connects the tough outer plates, allowing each concentric segment not just to attach to its neighbor, but to slide into the next one. The authors call this movement "telescoping."
"Our research on the ultrastructure of the FIM is of great significance to reveal the bending andflexing motion mechanism of the honey bee abdomen," said Professor Shaoze Yan, one of the co-authors. "During nectar feeding, a honey bee's abdomen does high-frequency respiratory exercises and assists the suction behavior of mouthparts to improve the intake efficiency."
