Anatomy of the honeybee’s stinger apparatus.

The stinger resides in the sting chamber inside the last abdominal segment (not to scale). The sting apparatus mainly comprises the protractor/retractor muscles, the bulb, the stinger, and the venom sac. The protractor muscles drive the stinger to penetrate the wound and the retractor muscles are used in the reverse manner to pull the stinger back into the sting chamber. During penetration, the venom is pumped into the stinger from the bulb, which is also known as the venom reservoir.