barry...
I'll offer you what I found from a quick search, in addition
to my relationship with a beekeeper who has been in the
business for 20+ years, who is a cousin of Jimmy Stewart,
who is the one that encouraged him to take up beekeeping.
His name is John.
I'll offer it as a comment, since I don't, at the moment,
have the time to dress it up and elaborate to my satisfaction.
However, if it serves your needs, let me know, and I'll post
it as an official answer.
I found this really quickly. It's a breakdown of the amino acid
composition of bee venom. The fact that it's composed of
a string of amino acids explains how easily the bees manufacture
it, since they eat a great deal of pollen, which is a complete
protein with all 22 amino acids. So they don't have to visit any
special plants to get that.
Alanine
Arganine
Asparagine
Aspartate
Cysteine
Glutamate
Glutamine
Glycine
Histidine
Isoleucine
Leucine
Lycine
Methiodine
Phenylalanine
Proline
Tryptophan
Tyrosine
Valine
http://www.concord.org/~barbara/workbench_web/unitIV_revised/blood/blood6_aminos.html
That breakdown starts from a discussion on this page:
http://www.concord.org/~barbara/workbench_web/unitIV_revised/bee_venom/
Some of the major predators, not so much of bees, but of the honey
they produce, are mammals, both large and small. Bears and smaller
mammals will try to get at the honey in both man-made and wild
hives. John recalls seeing a bear who was shot in the process of
tearing up a bunch of man-made hives and gorging on the honey.
The bear would probably have died soon anyway. When they
cut him open, they found well over 300 bee stings in his throat,
which would have swollen closed in no time.
Here's an excellent page on the nature of the stinger and the venom:
http://maarec.cas.psu.edu/bkCD/HBBiology/insect_sting.htm#Venom
And, from the same site, a page noting that bee venom has some
pheremone content, which is a common form of communication
among bees, so when one bee stings, the scent alerts other bees
to the presence of a threat to the colony (bees are much more
defensive of the colony and its contents than they are of themselves):
"The alarm or sting pheromone also may be a complex of pheromones.
When a bee stings, other bees in the immediate vicinity also try to
sting in the same place."
http://maarec.cas.psu.edu/bkCD/HBBiology/bee_behavior.htm
That site is generally a wealth of information about bees.
The home page:
http://maarec.cas.psu.edu/bkCD/HBBiology/beebiology.html
As for why the venom doesn't affect the bee itself, common sense
tells me that it's for the same reason a rattlesnake is unaffected by
its own venom: the venom is in a sac which insulates it from the
rest of the organism.
Notice the two glands which make up the venom sac, from the page
I cited earlier:
"The poison gland system of the bee consists of a small alkaline gland
and a larger acid gland. The venom comes from these two glands."
http://maarec.cas.psu.edu/bkCD/HBBiology/insect_sting.htm#Venom
This may be part of the reason the venom is less volatile within the
insect, as it isn't mixed until it's injected.
I hope that helps you!
sublime1-ga
Searches done, via Google:
"bee venom" -therapy -product
://www.google.com/search?q=%22bee+venom%22+-therapy+-product |
