When observing honey bee hives at Dilmun Hill Farm with Bee Club, you see a worker bee pointing her abdomen up, exposing a spot towards the end of her abdomen by the entrance of the hive. You tell the others observing with you who are not taking ENTOM 2030 that she is…

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Question restatement: You’re observing a worker honey bee near the hive entrance, with her abdomen lifted and a spot exposed at the end of the abdomen, and you’re explaining to non-ENTOM 2030 peers what she is doing.
Option 1: 'Showing you her stinger to warn that she is getting ready to attack.' Bees near the entrance can sometimes raise aggression, but a worker exposing the tip of the abdomen in this context is not a typical signal of preparing a defensive sting; stinger display is not the commonly described behavior in this situation, and stingers are not normally presented in a way that communicates to the group via a gland-like mechanism.
Option 2: 'Using her Hypopharyngeal Gland to recruit more nurse bees.' The hypopharyngeal glands are associated with brood care and producing royal jelly or brood food for larvae, typically within the hive and coordinated through trophallaxis and nursing behavior, not something visibly displayed at the hive entrance as a signaling posture to recruit more workers from the outside.
Option 3: 'In the process of laying an egg. You will want to make sure that the hive still has a queen.' Worker bees do not lay fertilized eggs in a healthy hive; those duties are typically performed by the queen. If an egg-laying queen were absent or there was a concern about queen status, there would be different signs to look for, such as lack of brood pattern or queen cells, but a worker exposing her abdomen at the entrance is not a standard sign of laying an egg.
Option 4: 'Exposing her Nasanov Gland to communicate with other members of her hive.' The Nasanov gland is located at the tip of the abdomen in worker bees and is involved in producing pheromonal cues used to orient and recruit nestmates, especially when leaving or returning to the hive or when guiding other bees; exposing this gland at the entrance is consistent with a signaling behavior meant to communicate with hive members.
Reasoning summary: Among these options, the behavior described—lifting the abdomen end and exposing a marker region at the hive entrance—most closely matches a signaling posture associated with the Nasanov gland, which is used for communal orientation and recruitment cues. The other options refer to behaviors that do not align with the described posture or are contexts where those glands or actions are not typically involved in observable entrance signaling. Thematically, the stinger display is a defensive action not best described by abdominal exposure at the entrance, hypopharyngeal gland activity relates to brood care inside the hive, and oviposition by workers is not a standard or expected behavior in a healthy colony.
Note on terminology: The Nasanov gland-containing region is specifically implicated in releasing scents used for colony signaling, which is exactly the kind of social cue you'd expect to see when a bee is directing activity or guiding others toward or away from the entrance.
If you were to observe more bees showing the same abdominal posture or accompanying behaviors (like orientation flights or recruitment wagons of scent), that would further support this interpretation. Conversely, signs like direct stinging, queen absence indicators, or brood care actions would point toward different explanations.

ENTOM2030/ENTOM2031 Pre-Lecture 12 Quiz

When observing honey bee hives at Dilmun Hill Farm with Bee Club, you see a worker bee pointing her abdomen up, exposing a spot towards the end of her abdomen by the entrance of the hive. You tell the others observing with you who are not taking ENTOM 2030 that she is…

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