The front and hind wings of the honey bee are held together in flight by a row of tiny hooks at the leading edge of the rear wing. These hooks, called hamuli, (from the Latin hamus... "hook"), grasp a "ledge" made by a stiff fold on the trailing edge of the front wing. They must be pretty tough... a honey bee beats its wings about 230 times a second, and a worker bee lives for about 6 weeks. And it's a time proven technology too!... last year I photographed hamuli on a tiny wasp that had gotten trapped in amber about 30million years ago:
http://www.photomacrography1.net/forum/ ... ght=hamuli
10/0.30 Nikon CFN Plan, Canon 350D. 40 frames stacked with Helicon Focus.
40X Olympus M, Canon 350D. 45 frames stacked in Helicon Focus.
Honey bee hamuli... natures "velcro"
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- Charles Krebs
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Honey bee hamuli... natures "velcro"
Last edited by Charles Krebs on Mon Mar 09, 2009 11:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Natures desgin is quite awesome, she uses her resources in the simplest and most effective ways. 30 million years ago was a long time Charlie. Who was president back then...Truman?
Beautiful shots as always and good clear details. Since you have the bee dismantled, how about a shot of that rail to where these hooks attach, maybe with a little micromanipulation you could enjoin them.
Beautiful shots as always and good clear details. Since you have the bee dismantled, how about a shot of that rail to where these hooks attach, maybe with a little micromanipulation you could enjoin them.
- Charles Krebs
- Posts: 5865
- Joined: Tue Aug 01, 2006 8:02 pm
- Location: Issaquah, WA USA
- Contact: