REGARDING           RE>Scuba diving bees                                      
                                                                                
                                                                                
First Ann Dougherty writes:                                                     
>I caught a swarm a couple weeks ago and started feeding it syrup with a        
>division board feeder. They were taking the syrup real fast and making         
>nice white comb just like a swarm.                                             
>                                                                               
>When I went to fill the feeder again there were many bees at the bottom of     
>the feeder licking the remaining syrup up.  I poured the syrup on top of       
>them expecting them to float or crawl to the top. Most of them did just        
>that.                                                                          
>                                                                               
>Ispent at least 2 minutes looking for eggs etc., and before closing the        
>hive looked in the feeder. There were still some bees crawling on the          
>screened sides of the feeder fully submerged walking up and down the           
>screen in a very undistressed manner.                                          
>                                                                               
>Can a bee hold its breath? Or had an air bubble formed over each spiracle?     
>How did they do that?                                                          
>                                                                               
>Eventually they came to the top and went about their business.                 
                                                                                
                                                                                
Then Dave Goble replies:                                                        
                                                                                
        "Bees are an insect or in scientific terms an invertebrate, their       
breathing system is similar to a crabs. As you are aware a crab can stay        
under water and sand. Therefore bees can for a time also stay under water,      
but eventually their internal food supply is affected and they die. ( So yes    
they can scuba dive)."                                                          
                                                                                
The comparison of bees and crabs is misleading.  Sure, they both are            
arthropods, but that is beside the point.  Crabs, lobsters, etc, are water      
dwellers, which breathe with gills.  Bees are not, and are equipped with        
spiracles leading to tracheal tubes which deliver air (oxygen) to each body     
cell directly, as Ann recognizes in her original post.  I think she had the     
right idea in the first place, that small bubbles of air were carried down      
into the fluid with the bee.                                                    
                                                                                
Ted Fischer