# A bee with its head cut off

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bee-with-its-head-cut-off/203844>\
**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:** 4\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Iteki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/eada6e/32.png) [@Iteki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iteki)\
**Post date:** [September 26, 2003, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bee-with-its-head-cut-off/203844/21 "2003-09-26T21:52:57Z")

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\<anecdotal\>  
We feed the frogs with crickets. Sometimes we get very aggressive mature crickets who can attack eachother. One day I looked into the frog enclosure and there lay a cricket head, totally by itsself with the antenna twitching. I have no idea how long it had been lying there, or what they did with the body. Freaked me the hell out.

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**Author:** ![AndrewL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@AndrewL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AndrewL)\
**Post date:** [September 26, 2003, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bee-with-its-head-cut-off/203844/22 "2003-09-26T21:58:12Z")

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Do you have a cite for that, **Jojo?** It seems pretty damn unlikely that the blood is the carrier of high-level motor messageing in insects, seeing as how they have nervous systems which seem to be designed to do that job.

In reference to the OP, keep in mind that an insect’s nrevous system isn’t as centralized as ours. The part of the nervous system in the head (The “brain”) mostly just proscesses sensory signals. Tasks like controling walking, climbing, digestion, mating, and (in bees) stinging are controleld by nerve ganglia throughout the body.

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**Author:** ![Joe\_Mahma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@Joe\_Mahma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joe_Mahma)\
**Post date:** [September 26, 2003, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bee-with-its-head-cut-off/203844/23 "2003-09-26T22:09:18Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Derleth \*  
> \*\*Damn.
> 
> Jointed foot. Should have known that.
> 
> I know arthropedists (joint specialists) and I just recalled the correct translation.
> 
> Bah. \*\*

The term you’re thinking of is orthopedist.

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**Author:** ![Jojo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecd19e/32.png) [@Jojo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jojo)\
**Post date:** [September 27, 2003, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-bee-with-its-head-cut-off/203844/24 "2003-09-27T04:04:26Z")

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AndrewL said:

> [@](#):
>
> Do you have a cite for that, Jojo?

[Cite](http://www.iui-eilat.ac.il/nadav/pdf/Ayali-JEB4134.pdf)

Don’t bother reading that cite, I just posted it as a joke because I thought it was _so_ detailed about locusts, it’s hilarious. (But I bet no one else manages to wade through it all, like I did, word by arduous word).

I wish I could give you a cite but it’s just something I read a long time ago.

FWIW I seem to recall reading it somewhere reliable. That’s why it’s stuck in my head for so long - it’s one of those weird but true stories. I think I might have read it in a Daniel C. Dennett book.

But I could, of course, be wrong since I have no proof to present so take it for what you will.

I’ll think about it and try and remember where I read it. Unless someone else on here also has knowledge of this experiment?

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