Knowra Sting Sting A sting is a piercing structure used by some animals to deliver venom or other substances, usually for defense or prey capture. It occurs in forms such as modified egg-laying organs and specialized tail structures.
Venom : A biologically produced mixture of substances delivered into another organism through a wound or specialized apparatus. Venom is the chemical payload that many stings inject.
Hymenoptera : An insect order that includes bees, wasps, ants, and sawflies. Most familiar insect stings belong to bees, wasps, or ants in this order.
Envenomation : The introduction of venom into a person or animal through a bite, sting, or other delivery mechanism. It names the medical event caused when a sting injects venom.
Animal bite : A wound made when an animal's teeth or mouthparts grip or cut tissue. Bites use jaws or mouthparts, whereas a sting uses a specialized piercing structure.
Barbed sting : A sting with backward-facing barbs that resist withdrawal from tissue. Honeybee workers have barbed stings that can detach with attached tissues.
Cnidocyte : A specialized cell in cnidarians that can discharge a venomous or adhesive capsule. Jellyfish stings arise from discharged cnidocytes rather than a single rigid organ.
Anaphylaxis : A rapid, potentially life-threatening systemic allergic reaction. A sting can trigger anaphylaxis in someone sensitized to its venom.
Envenomation by bite : Venom delivery through an animal's bite, as in many snakes. Snakes inject venom through fangs rather than through a sting.
Ovipositor : An organ used by many female insects to lay eggs, sometimes modified for piercing or venom delivery. Many insect stings evolved from this egg-laying structure.
Nematocyst : A capsule inside a cnidocyte that rapidly ejects a coiled, often barbed tubule. Nematocysts pierce or entangle targets during many cnidarian stings.
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