Thankyou for copying those interesting passages Adrian.  I will note another
interesting analogy between the stinger and the bees sexual organs, this
time not the ovipositor, but the male organ.  The nervous control of the
sting is such that the pumping of the venom sac is always "on".  The nervous
system of the bee PREVENTS it from discharging most of the time.  It has to
be so since it pumps AFTER it is torn out of the bee.

I know that in praying mantises that the males continue to copulate when a
female is eating the male by a similar arrangement of the nervous system.
I would not be surprised (although I do not know) if the drone bees
copulation is similar, since the genitals are torn out during copulation,
perhaps before all the sperm is discharged.

Regards, Stan