# A bee with its head cut off **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 25, 2003, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bee-with-its-head-cut-off/203844 "2003-09-25T21:46:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![5cents](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/5/46a35a/32.png) [@5cents](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/5cents)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2003, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bee-with-its-head-cut-off/203844/1 "2003-09-25T21:46:27Z")
I’ve heard of chickens running around with their heads cut off, but today I witnessed something similar with a bee. Our house is under renovation, and while I was talking to the carpenter, a bee flew in and was becoming a bit of a bother. The bee landed, and the carpenter took what he had in hand - a utility knife - and chopped off the bee’s head. The bee could not take off, but its wings would flap, and if you touched the bees leg with a pencil it would climb up onto the pencil. A few jokes were made, and at one point the bee was reintroduced to its head (frankenbee?), but after a minute or two, it was put out of its misery. At no point did the bee appear to be in distress (other than it couldn’t fly). What was going on? How are the wings and feet controlled? ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2003, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bee-with-its-head-cut-off/203844/2 "2003-09-25T22:10:30Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by 5cents \* > **At no point did the bee appear to be in distress (other than it couldn’t fly).** And exactly how did you know this? If you were a decapitated bee, how would you communicate your level of distress to a sadistic human? (Bear in mind that “you” would be the head, not the body.) ---
**Author:** ![5cents](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/5/46a35a/32.png) [@5cents](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/5cents)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2003, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bee-with-its-head-cut-off/203844/3 "2003-09-26T01:54:16Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by panache45 \* > \*\*And exactly how did you know this? If you were a decapitated bee, how would you communicate your level of distress to a sadistic human? (Bear in mind that “you” would be the head, not the body.) \*\* How would you, as a bee, communicate your level of distress when your head is attached? Perhaps by zooming around erracticly? This bee seemed to react more like the knight in Monty Pyton’s Holy Grail - it’s only a flesh wound! ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2003, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bee-with-its-head-cut-off/203844/4 "2003-09-26T02:02:38Z")
OK, let’s get sceintific here. Bees don’t have the brains to feel distress at this type of thing. Pain is another issue, but distress is just not an option for what is really a very complex robot. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2003, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bee-with-its-head-cut-off/203844/5 "2003-09-26T02:32:00Z")
A bee without a head…would be named [Eric](http://www.wilken.freeserve.co.uk/Montypython/Songs/song14.htm). ---
**Author:** ![Jojo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecd19e/32.png) [@Jojo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jojo)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2003, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bee-with-its-head-cut-off/203844/6 "2003-09-26T03:41:29Z")
Apparently, locusts don’t have veins or whatever. Their blood just washes around inside their body. I once heard that it’s been shown in experiment that you can surgically remove the head of a locust and then tie another locust on top of it (upside down). Then you make joints between the two locusts so that their blood mingles. They effectively become one creature. The bottom locust (with no head) walks around in accordance with the instructions given by the top locust (which has a head and can see where it is going). The blood seems to carry the requisite instruction - WALK IN X DIRECTION - from the brain of the top locust to the legs of the bottom locust (which has no head). The only thing connecting the two locusts is the blood which is now washing around both locusts as though they were one unit. In humans, brain signals are carried through the nerves but in locusts it seems to be the blood. Maybe bees are similar? ps I have no expertise in this subject, I’m just hypothesizing. ---
**Author:** ![Gunslinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4491bb/32.png) [@Gunslinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gunslinger)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2003, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bee-with-its-head-cut-off/203844/7 "2003-09-26T04:09:45Z")
You souldn’t’ve done that. Now it’ll come back as zombee and eat your brains. Can you imagine how annoying it would be to have an undead creature buzzing around your head saying “[sub][sup]Brainzzzzzzzzzzzz! Brainzzzzzzzzzzzzzz![/sup][/sub]” * * * Maybe bugs’ brains (or equivalent) aren’t in their heads. We’ve all heard the factiod that a cockroach can live without its head for weeks, until it starves to death. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2003, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bee-with-its-head-cut-off/203844/8 "2003-09-26T04:21:10Z")
Arthropods\* don’t have vascular systems. The blood does indeed slosh around, and the animal’s body is built like a hard case with tender bits inside, moving everything around. I forget precisely how the heart works, but I know it’s not very efficient. (\*Literally, `bony foot’. Arthropods are a class of animals that includes not only insects and arachnids, but also things like lobsters and crawfish. They have a bony carapace, no internal skeleton, and simple divisions between the parts of the body.) Arthropods do have brains and nerves, however, so the nervous instructions don’t `ride the blood’ anywhere. But, as one might imagine, the system is trivially simple. Arthropods in general aren’t near as complex as mammals. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2003, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bee-with-its-head-cut-off/203844/9 "2003-09-26T04:23:57Z")
And, on rereading, the carapace isn’t `bony.’ That’s the Latin creeping back up. It’s made of chitin, which is not bone. It does, however, have some of the same properties as bone. ---
**Author:** ![Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2003, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bee-with-its-head-cut-off/203844/10 "2003-09-26T04:32:48Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Gunslinger \* > \*\*You souldn’t’ve done that. Now it’ll come back as zombee and eat your brains. > > Can you imagine how annoying it would be to have an undead creature buzzing around your head saying “[sub][sup]Brainzzzzzzzzzzzz! Brainzzzzzzzzzzzzzz![/sup][/sub]” > \*\* Bwahahahaha. **Slinger** , you slay me. But how would it eat your brains with no head? ---
**Author:** ![racinchikki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eada6e/32.png) [@racinchikki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racinchikki)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2003, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bee-with-its-head-cut-off/203844/11 "2003-09-26T04:53:01Z")
Very slowly. ---
**Author:** ![Desmostylus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@Desmostylus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desmostylus)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2003, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bee-with-its-head-cut-off/203844/12 "2003-09-26T11:43:13Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Gyrate \* > \*\*A bee without a head…would be named [Eric](http://www.wilken.freeserve.co.uk/Montypython/Songs/song14.htm). \*\* Cyril Connelly? ---
**Author:** ![calm\_kiwi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc348/32.png) [@calm\_kiwi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/calm_kiwi)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2003, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bee-with-its-head-cut-off/203844/13 "2003-09-26T12:11:44Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Gyrate \* > \*\*A bee without a head…would be named [Eric](http://www.wilken.freeserve.co.uk/Montypython/Songs/song14.htm). \*\* I reckon he would be named Cranky…and I wouldn’t get too close to the sharp end. ---
**Author:** ![Angua](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8baadc/32.png) [@Angua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Angua)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2003, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bee-with-its-head-cut-off/203844/14 "2003-09-26T12:14:31Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Desmostylus \* > \*\*Cyril Connelly? \*\* No, semi-carnaly ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2003, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bee-with-its-head-cut-off/203844/15 "2003-09-26T15:15:59Z")
Ho ho ho, hee hee hee… 😃 ---
**Author:** ![booklover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/85f322/32.png) [@booklover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/booklover)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2003, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bee-with-its-head-cut-off/203844/16 "2003-09-26T15:37:10Z")
**JoJo** , I think you’ve just given me a science project for this weekend…I needed some way to procrastinate cleaning the house! I’ll let y’all know how it turns out. The only question is how to join the two halves together. Rubberband, maybe? Superglue? ---
**Author:** ![Doomtrain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/0ea827/32.png) [@Doomtrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doomtrain)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2003, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bee-with-its-head-cut-off/203844/17 "2003-09-26T16:08:30Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by booklover \* > \*\*The only question is how to join the two halves together. Rubberband, maybe? Superglue? \*\* Duct tape, of course! ---
**Author:** ![wet\_marble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e0b2c6/32.png) [@wet\_marble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wet_marble)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2003, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bee-with-its-head-cut-off/203844/18 "2003-09-26T16:10:10Z")
It’s actually the lack of a vascular system that limits the size of insects. If they got too large, then gravity would effectively pool all of their blood at the bottom of their bodies. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2003, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bee-with-its-head-cut-off/203844/19 "2003-09-26T18:50:51Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Derleth_ > Arthropods\* … > > \*Literally, `bony foot’. Nitpick: [www.m-w.com](http://www.m-w.com) says > [@](#): > > Main Entry: **arthr-** > Variant(s): _or_ **arthro-** > Function: _combining form_ > Etymology: Latin, from Greek, from \*arthron; \*akin to Greek _arariskein to fit > **:** joint <arthro_pathy> ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2003, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bee-with-its-head-cut-off/203844/20 "2003-09-26T20:57:39Z")
Damn. Jointed foot. Should have known that. I know arthropedists (joint specialists) and I just recalled the correct translation. Bah. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bee-with-its-head-cut-off/203844.md?page=2)