Читать книгу Honey Bee Medicine for the Veterinary Practitioner - Группа авторов - Страница 70

Veterinarians receive a broad understanding of vertebrate life yet little education concerning invertebrates because of this focus in their veterinary school training. The honey bee's recent recognition as a food producing animal is helping to reshape the future of our profession, and now veterinarians are becoming trained in this important capacity. The leap from vertebrate medicine to that of insects may not be that far‐off. Even though these two groups of animals are distinct in many ways, they share similar bodily functions of a nervous system, respiration, blood circulation, digestion and excretion, metabolism, and reproduction (Figure 4.1) (Ritter 2014). In most respects the vertebrate body is considerably more complex compared to invertebrates, especially regarding the nervous system, body size, and structure. Interestingly however, compared with vertebrates, the honey bee colony – with its team of cooperating individuals working together as a superorganism – is one step above the organizational order of the vertebrates whose basic elements are composed of various cells and tissues (Hölldobler and Wilson 2009). This advanced organizational structure is dependent upon various anatomical and physiological adaptations. According to R.E. Snodgrass, “An insect is a living machine; no other animal is provided with so many anatomical tools, gadgets or mechanisms for doing such a variety of things as is a winged insect.”

Figure 4.1 Comparative anatomy of the vertebrate equine (a) with the invertebrate honey bee (b). Despite their marked physical differences, these two groups of animals share similar functional body systems. Note the separate colors for the various body systems: GI System – Brown = Foregut, Light Green = Midgut, Dark Green = Hindgut; Blue = Respiratory System; Red = Cardiovascular System; Yellow = Nervous System.

Source: © Lauren D. Sawchyn, DVM, CMI. Chapter: Physiology of the honey bee, authored by Rolfe M. Radcliffe and illustrated by Lauren D. Sawchyn.