If anyone has ever called you “the bee’s knees,” it means that you are described as a highly admired person or thing, dating back to the 1920s and beyond!
Have you ever taken a moment to envision a bee possessing knees? Do bees, as well as other insects, possess knees? Do insects, including bees, have knees that you have never truly contemplated?
Let’s first consider the knee, which is a complicated structure that includes three bones: the kneecap (patella), the shin bone (tibia), and the thigh bone (femur). In addition to humans, many other animals such as birds, mammals, and some reptiles also have knees with kneecaps. At the knee, your leg can bend and straighten with the help of tendons and ligaments, as well as various types of cartilage that provide lubrication.
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Unlike other animals, bees and other insects do not possess bones in the same way. Instead, they have an exoskeleton, which serves as a bee’s skeleton and is located externally. In contrast to vertebrates, who rely on rigid skeletons to support their soft bodies, bees have a protective exoskeleton made of chitin. This exoskeleton safeguards their internal, softer parts.
According to a researcher at Oregon State University, bee legs, similar to the legs of humans and other legged animals, are divided into five parts, namely the coxa, trochanter, femur, tibia, and tarsus. These segments are arranged starting from the closest point to the bee’s body.
Is there a knee similar to ours between the femur and the tibia? According to Sagili, the answer is no.
All of these segments are joined together, and the leg of bees has six segments. Sagili from Science Live explained that there will be a chitin joint between each of these segments.
According to Sagili, bees possess a straightforward ball-and-socket joint connecting their leg segments, as opposed to a tangled mess of tendons, ligaments, and a knee cap. These joints aid bees in maneuvering their legs, cleaning themselves, removing pollen, or performing a dance to communicate with their fellow hive members.
In the early 20th century, people used the phrase “the bee’s knees” to describe something that doesn’t exist, while still acknowledging that the femur and tibia have a joint between them, allowing flexibility in our knees that bees don’t have.
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JoAnna, who graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in general sciences because she couldn’t decide on her favorite area of science, enjoys pancaking, crossword puzzles, painting, reading, and hiking in her spare time. She is not only a science cartoonist, with comics published in Students for Science News, NASA, Gizmodo, and other publications, but also a beloved science cartoonist. JoAnna’s work has also appeared in Science Popular, Magazine, Smithsonian, and Eos. While she loves moss, lichen, invertebrates, and the ocean, her main focus is on planetary and Earth sciences.
