Scientists Uncover How Honeybee Stingers Continue Injecting Venom

Scientists have resolved a longstanding question about how honeybee stingers keep injecting venom after detaching. This discovery, made by researchers at Macquarie University and the University of New South Wales, took five years of study. Lead author Fiorella Ramirez-Esquivel described the project as a significant scientific effort.

It has been known since the early 1900s that honeybees use small pumps to empty venom sacs into a chamber. However, the new study published in the US journal PNAS is the first to show and film how stingers continue pumping venom after detachment. High-speed video revealed two tiny valves shaped like pistons that pump venom continuously.